CONFIDENTIAL
4. As for the proposed amendments to the Fublic
Order Ordinance, the evident reason for these is
to stop magistrates evading the purposes of
Section 33.
However, I wonder, with diffidence,
whether the proposed Section 33 (4) is in fact
necessary, or even perhaps desirable.
Section three
33 (2)(b) as now drafted would permit these other
altimatives to
forms of punishment as well as imprisonment.
It
will therefore presumably be more difficult hence-
forward for magistrates to claim that Section 11
(2) of the Juvenile Offenders Ordinance would
permit other forms of punishment altogether,
especially as the latter is the older law and
Section 33 (2)(b) relates specifically and compre-
hensively to young persons. At the same time
there could be cosmetic advantages, at least in
the UK, in not appearing to tamper with the
Juvenile Offenders Ordinance. In the public eye
to revoke guidance away from imprisonment easily
lides into a requirement to imprison. Mandatory
prison sentences for young persons are apt to be
the stuff of which fusses in this country are
made, witness the Timothy Davey case in Turkey.
5. However these comments are my own as an
ex-Judicial adviser and therefore have no weight.
I am also sure that they will already have
occurred to you. We look forward to hearing how
things go.
30/3
CONFIDENTIAL
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