HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 21st October 1970. 139
person in charge of a public body or a Government department (other than the Commissioner of Inland Revenue) and from managers of banks (in the form of copies of the accounts of the person suspected and of his spouse, parents and children). The information required under the clause must be set out in the notice with some certainty and the clause may not be used as a means of authorizing any general investigation of a citizen's private affairs. Because I realize that the power conferred by this clause must be used with the greatest care, either I, or the Solicitor General, will personally exercise it, unless we find that it has to be invoked so often that we are unable to continue to do so in the light of our other commitments, in which event it will not be delegated to anyone below the rank of Principal Crown Counsel.
Clause 14 differs in one important respect from the 1969 bill, in that a suspect will not now be guilty of an offence if he fails to comply with a notice under that clause calling on him to supply information. The effect of the previous clause would have been, in some cases, to force a suspect either to supply information incriminating himself, or to be convicted of the offence of failing to comply with a notice if he refused to do so. Now, where a notice is served on a suspect, he can either proffer an explanation or refuse to do so, without fear of prosecu- tion for his refusal. However, if he does refuse, clause 20 of the bill will enable the fact of his refusal to be adduced in evidence, since it is surely pertinent for the court, in deciding how much weight can properly be attached to an accused's defence, to consider why it was not disclosed at an earlier stage when he received a notice under clause 14.
In the light of comments which have been received from the Bar Association and the Law Society, clause 15 has been redrafted so as to preserve, from disclosure under the bill, any privileged information which has come to the knowledge of a legal adviser for the purposes of any court proceedings, begun or contemplated, or for the purpose of enabling the legal adviser to give legal advice to his client. So long as it does not relate to privileged matters, legal advisers may be required to give the limited kind of information which is set out in clause 15(3). This provision is intended to enable an investigation to follow property or money, since without it many investigations might come to a dead end in a solicitor's office. Fears have been expressed lest this special position of members of the profession may be used by unscrupulous persons to conceal corrupt transactions or the proceeds of them. I am, however, confident that the legal profession in Hong Kong will ensure that its members do not lend themselves to this kind of exploitation.
Clauses 16 and 17 contain supplementary powers of scarch and seizure. It will be noted that, under clause 16(1)(b), I must authorize entry into the premises of a public body if this is to be done without obtaining a warrant in the usual manner. Clause 17 enables me or the
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