TNAG-0377-FCO40-423-Defence-and-Oversea-Policy-Committee-review-of-UK-relations--1973 — Page 26

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ommunications on this subject should

be addressed to

THE LEGAL SECRETARY

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S CHAMBERS

CONFIDENTIAL

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S CHAMBERS,

LAW OFFICERS' DEPARTMENT,

ROYAL COURTS OF JUSTICE,

-2-

LONDON, W.C.2.

we have control over the laws which are made in Hong Kong. It is illogical and contrary to commonsense not to return offenders against laws which we have accepted so that they may be dealt with in Hong Kong and thus to allow them to escape justice."

The argument about discrimination seems to be a red herring. In the sense used in the draft paper the Fugitive Offenders Act will discriminate because it operates in relation to those who are in the country and does not operate in relation to those who are not. In whatever Commonwealth country the offence may have been committed and by whatever class of person; its general effect is inherent. However, this is not a strictly legal point; but the last sentence of your draft also seems irrelevant.

(c) Paragraph 17

In the first sentence the reference should be to the Law Officers' Department. My impression was that at the meeting in the Home Office there was no agreement that the change should apply to all Dependant Territories over whose laws there was a power of disallowance and also that a schedule of laws was a non-starter.

But, if your Secretary of State decided to present proposals for amending the law in either of these forms, I do not see that there would be any objections of a legal character which the Law Officers would wish to raise. The difficulty for them would be to defend Section 10 of the Hong Kong Bribery Ordinance if it were decided to rest our arguments in Parliament on the justification of the provisions of that Ordinance.

Your Sincerely,

M.C. de Wawa

A.C. Stuart, Esq.,

Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London.S.W.1.

CONFIDENTIAL