TNAG-0194-FCO40-230-Emergency-legislation-and-Public-Order-ordinance-discussions-1969 — Page 72

CONFIDENTIAL

nature without undue difficulty;

(iii) the police officer has the backing of the

indemnity provided by Section 53 of the

Ordinance.

(c) Paragraph 5:

(a)

Section 12 (3) of the Ordinance makes it an offence if anyone "forms or continues to form part of" any unlawful

assembly. "Justice" criticised the inclusion of these words on the grounds that they made it possible for an innocent bystander, who had been caught up in an unlawful assembly, to be guilty of an offence although he may have had no guilty intent. Clause 7 (b) of the Bill amends Section 12 (3) of the ordinance by making it a defence for an accused person to show that he did not know that it was an unlawful assembly. However, the proposed

amendment would not cover the case of an innocent person

caught up in an unlawful assembly and unable to escape from it because of pressure from the crowd. 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. The

Governor has accordingly been asked to give further thought

to this matter.

Paragraph 6:

"Justice" had suggested that the words "noisy, disorderly

or intimidating" might be added before "manner" in the second line of Section 18 (1) of the Ordinance. We had

originally suggested that it would be preferable to refer

to conduct in a "disorderly manner", on the ground that the word "noisy" was too vague and might be caused by

cheerful spirits and not evil intent; and that "intimida-

tion" is covered by the word "disorderly". The Commissioner

of Police has pointed out that a group of persons could conduct themselves other than in a dis-orderly manner and

CONFIDENTIAL

/ yet