TNAG-0352-FCO40-388-Appointments-to-judiciary-of-Hong-Kong-1972 — Page 157

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discretion in the matter of selecting persons to be HM Judges

in Hong Kong, and I conveyed his views (with which both the

ODA and we in Hong Kong Department agreed) to Sir Hugh Norman-

Walker in my letter of 7 July 1971.

4.

Because we did not know what action Hong Kong had taken

in this matter I wrote to Mr Roberts, the Attorney General,

seeking his assistance (apart from the circular there was a

letter from Mr de Basto to which no reply had been sent).

In his reply Mr Roberts has told us that two petitions are on

the way to the Secretary of State - one from a number of District

Judges and Magistrates asking for an assurance that appointments

from the Bar to the Bench will not be made or, if they are

made, that compensation will be provided (in some form unspecified)

and the other from the Hong Kong Bar Committee asking that there

should be appointments from the Bar to the Bench. These two

petitions will be sent to us with the Governor's recommendations

and in the circumstances Mr Roberts has suggested that it would

be sufficient for Mr Royle to tell Mr Tilney that he under-

stands that the Chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association has

submitted a petition on this subject and that it would not

therefore be appropriate for Mr Royle to deal with the problem

by personal correspondence. A draft is attached.

Eraina Raio

E O Laird

Hong Kong Department

18 January 1972

This

Seems

2.

right.

will soon be called for

But

a jugment of Salaman on the 2 petitions!

Kunlife, P.10.

اور

P.TO