Reference.....
8) on Part A of HWB 14/34.
9 & 12 on above file. Behind (16 on above file.
(22) on above
file.
(26/E/i on Part B on above file.
B
(413) on Port is of alour file
42/E/Bon Part B on above file.
50) on the above file
Mr. Cruchley
The Hong Kong Public Order Ordinance was enacted in November 1967. Prior to its enactment, the draft Bill had formed the subject of prolonged consultation with the Commonwealth Office, and we expressed doubts to Hong Kong on certain of its provisions. Hong Kong came back on us proposing certain modifications to most of which we agreed. The Bill was subsequently enacted.
2.
There was considerable criticism of the Ordinance which formed the subject of a partition to the House of Commons which was laid on the table of the House by Mr. John Rankin, M.P. on 12 December 1967, but the major criticism came from the Hong Kong branch of "Justice" who prepared a detailed report on the various provisions of the Ordinance, which they sent to the Minister via their London Head Office. This memorandum reached us after the enactment of the Ordinance but before notification of Her Majesty's non-disallowance had been conveyed to Hong Kong. The Minister replied to the London headquarters of Justice, that he did not consider that the memorandum made out a case for taking the very serious action of recommending disallowance, but that it did raise certain points which would be brought to the notice of the Governor as soon as the memorandum had been examined in detail.
3.
In the course of the detailed examination of the memorandum in the Commonwealth Office, we received the comments of the Attorney General, Hong Kong, on the various points raised in the memorandum. These comments were taken into account by our Legal Advisers in the course of their examination of the memorandum, and in June 1968, after the examination had been completed, we informed Hong Kong that subject to certain comments which our Legal Advisers had made on certain paragraphs of the memorandum, the latter were in general agreement with the views expressed by the Attorney General, Kong Kong. We asked the Governor if consideration might be given to amending the Ordinance in the light of those views.
4.
The enclosure to(8)of this file is the draft amending Bill which the Hong Kong Government now wish to enact, to give effect, as far as they deem practicable, to the criticisms raised by "Justice" and the queries raised by our own Legal Advisers. You will note from that the Governor is asking whether we would be prepared to re-consider our earlier advice on certain of the queries raised by our Legal Advisers. We have therefore now to decide whether we are prepared to agree to the enactment of the draft Bill behind (8) subject to certain amendments which the Governor asks to be made.
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