TNAG-0120-FCO40-156-Lord-Shepherd-s-visit-1969 — Page 84

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The proposed amendment could therefore give cause

for further complaint from Justice who might claim

that the substance of their original criticism had

clearly been accepted but that the measures taken

to deal with it were inadequate. It is accordingly

proposed to ask the Governor to give further thought

to this matter.

(e) Section 19 provides that when any person taking part

in an unlawful assembly commits a breach of the

peace, the assembly becomes a riot and all the per-

sons assembled are guilty of riot. Justice have

pointed out that this seems a somewhat drastic

modification of common law under which only persons

who are turbulent can be guilty of riot and that

under this Section a person could be guilty without

possessing any criminal intent. The difficulty here

is a practical one: the Police, when confronted with

an unruly mob, order it to disperse and those who

remain must expect to be treated as active partici-

pants; and if the Police are forced to separate

spectators from participants when handling a riot

there might be a dangerous hesitation in dealing

with a critical situation. The Governor therefore

considers that this particular Section should be

allowed to stand as it is. However, it is con-

sidered that the "unlawful assembly" referred to

in this Section should be confined to that defined

in Section 18 (1) and should not include the wider

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