TNAG-0111-FCO40-147-Detainees-and-prisoners-following-19671968-disturbances-1969 — Page 134

n Tilney, Esq., M.P.,

31st December, 1968.

4.

The fact is that in the case of some persons held

during the Emergency they were in fact taken into detention before Regulation 31 of the Emergency (Principal) Regula-

tions was proclaimed on 28th July 1967. Therefore they

were initially detained under the Deportation & Detention

Regulations, 1962. However, they were not held for long

before Regulation 31 was proclaimed and, instead of having

them brought before the Tribunal constituted under the

Deportation & Detention Regulations, they were in fact

thereafter detained under Regulation 31. The only

inference to be drawn is either that Government is o lazy

to try to make a case against these people sufficient to

satisfy the Tribunal, or that there is not a sufficient

case.

5. The crux of the problem, of course, is that there

are no legal safeguards of any sort under Regulation 31.

It is note-worthy that Regulation 31 was in fact put on

the statute books in 1949 at a time when, possibly, Great

Britain was less sensitive of her image abroad than she is

now. It is difficult to see why at the present time there

should not be some provisions under Regulation 31 to ensure: (i) that detention must be authorized or reviewed by a

Tribunal similar to that constituted under the Deportation & Detention Regulations, .1962; (ii) that the detainee is told the grounds for his detention; and (iii) that there are

some legal limits to the exercise of the powers of detention

so that the provisions are aimed at persons suspected of

activities subversive of the state and that Regulation 31

cannot be used as an instrument of oppression.

6.

I appreciate that there are good reasons why

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cont.