XN000022-1973-07-26 — Page 3

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Thursday, July 26, 1973

A spokesman said that a bill giving effect to both these

recommendations would be published in the Gazette tomorrow (Friday)

and all three readings taken at the Legislative Council next Wednesday.

The Commission also recommended that the Government should consider

tightening security arrangements at Kai Tak. "The problem is already

being examined by the Airport Security Committee," a Government spokesman

said. "Some immediate measures to tighten security at the airport

have already been taken and longer-term measures are being considered,"

he added.

Commenting on the commission's findings which suggest that more

could and should have been done to minimise the risk of Godber's departure,

the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Charles Sutcliffe, said, "One should not

consider the reasons for the decisions taken at this time without taking

into account the background to the enactment of this section of the

ordinance.

Section 10 was widely criticised in Hong Kong, and in Britain,

for being 'an invasion of privacy' and 'an infringement of human rights'.

The Attorney General, when introducing the Bill, accepted that it

constituted some infringement of traditional liberty and privacy!."

e, in the police force," said Mr. Sutcliffe, have been left

in no doubt, following consistent advice from our legal advisers, that

the letter and indeed the spirit of these sections of the law

protected the rights of the individual concerned - were to be scrupulously

observed. We were, not unnaturally, particularly sensitive on this

point, and this influenced the decisions we took on measures which might

have reduced the possibility of Godber's departure," the Commissioner added.

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"The measures