TNAG-0080-FCO40-116-Public-Order-legislation-1967 — Page 12

EXTRACT

474 HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 15th November 1967.

Clauses 1 and 2 were agreed to.

Council then resumed.

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY reported that the Bill before Council had passed through Committee without_amendment and moved the Third reading.

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL seconded.

The question was put and agreed to.

The Bill was read the Third time and passed.

го

PUBLIC ORDER BILL 1967

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL moved the Second reading of:-"A Bill to consolidate and amend the law relating to the maintenance of public order, the control of organizations, meetings, places, vessels and air- craft, unlawful assemblies and riots and matters incidental thereto or connected therewith."

He said: Sir, since the first publication of this Bill on the 6th October, there has been a certain amount of comment in the press on its provisions and I should like to take this opportunity to deal with some of the arguments which have been advanced and to try to correct misconceptions which appear to have been formed by some readers of the Bill.

There is, it appears, a widespread belief that this Bill is a hasty measure, which has been hurriedly compiled and is the product of the disturbances which have affected Hong Kong during 1967.

In fact, active work on the preparation of a Bill of this nature has been in progress for at least two years. Certainly, there have been alterations to the Bill to take into account the experience of the past few months, but the bulk of it is composed of provisions which are necessary in any country at any time.

One commentator, who described the Bill as a backward piece of colonialism drawn from the former Colonies of Africa, has perhaps been misled by the comparative table attached to the Bill into thinking that clauses which are attributed to African countries are not to be found elsewhere. The majority of those clauses, however, are based upon similar provisions taken from English Acts or from the common law. It is merely because the wording of the Bill follows that of an African Ordinance more closely than the original English provision, which was often couched in archaic language, that the reference in the comparative table has been to the Ordinance.