TNAG-0214-FCO40-250-Proposals-for-appointment-of-a-ombudsman-in-Hong-Kong-1968 — Page 104

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of the Conference Report. They will by now have been translated into legal form in the Draft Independence Order in Council. The P.I.O.D. will be able to let you see the draft. I should however add a word of warning. The Fiji provisions need not be applied to Hong Kong since (i) this

is an Independence Constitution and the constitutional set up is therefore very different and (ii) the delegates from

Fiji at the Constitutional Conference, against FCO advice, tended to overload in our judgment the duties put on the Ombudsman certainly before his capacity had been tested in practice. Mr. Royle in speaking to me yesterday stressed that we should present the proposal to Hong Kong as an "experiment" to which it was thought desirable in the light of experience, further responsibilities could be added.

Math Monsa

(L. Monson)

5 August, 1970