TNAG-0111-FCO40-147-Detainees-and-prisoners-following-19671968-disturbances-1969 — Page 133

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TELEPHONE! CHAMBERS. 230425

RESIDENCE, 93277

!

John Tilney, Esq., M.P. 3, Victoria Square,

London, S. W. 1,

ENGLAND.

31st December, 1968.

Dear

Thank you very much for your letter dated 13th December 1968 written after you talk with the Governor

in London.

2.

Thank you in particular for having spent time and taken so much interest on the question of the Deten-

tion laws in Hong Kong. We are concerned not so much about the persons at present still under detention but about the powers which Government has and seems unwilling to relinquish despite the easing of the Emergency. Government has given indications so far that it intends to modify the provisions of Regulation 31.

no

3. The thing is that with regard to aliens (i.e. non-British subjects) who are liable to deportation, there has always. been a procedure for detention provided under the Deportation & Detention Regulations, 1962 which, however, does afford some legal safeguards to the detainee. There is a Tribunal, the President of it is a Judge (Mr. Justice Blair-Kerr) with the Registrar of the Supreme Court as alternate President. The detainee has to be told why he

is being detained.

cont.

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