TNAG-0352-FCO40-388-Appointments-to-judiciary-of-Hong-Kong-1972 — Page 75

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CONFIDENTIAL

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4. I should also record that I discussed yesterday with Mr.

Fifoot whether there was any chance of finding a suitable service

candidate from outside Hong Kong. The only possible name that

occurred to us was Mr. Justice Trainor in the New Hebrides. It

would be very desirable to move him from there if he were willing

and a suitable post elsewhere could be found. Mr. Fifott doubts

however if he is good enough for Hong Kong but is going to look

at his confidential reports to make sure.

5. Another point Mr. Fifoot and I thought we should look at is

the age-structure of the Hong Kong bench. Given that the retiring age for the Supreme Court is 62, obviously the composition of the Court will tend to become undesirably stagnant if too many people

under say 50 are appointed Cons is only 44 and Jackson-Lipkin

only 49. I attach a copy of a staff list of Supreme Court and

District Judges I was given by the Registrar of the Supreme Court

that provides dates of birth and other career details.

6. I may perhaps say in passing, that I wish in some ways that instead of having a fixed retiring age of 62 for Supreme Court

judges in the Letters Patent, we could have had a different

formula, eg retirement at 55 or at the expiration of, say, seven

years from first appointment, whichever were the later. It is

however presumably too late to vary the Letters Patent, which

were of course modelled in this respect on the standard formulae in

most constitutions for which we were responsible.

7. Copies of this go to Sir Vincent Evans, Sir Leslie Monson and

Mr. Fifoot.

9 June 1972

A.R.R.

AR RUSHFORD DEPUTY LEGAL ADVISER

CONFIDENTIAL

DD 897152 154596 500M 2/72 GM 3643/2

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