TNAG-0397-FCO40-443-Problem-of-increase-in-crime-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 118

UK bid to stop anti-crime laws

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BRITAIN'S former

15 JUN 1973 CM

By RODNEY TASKER

Lord Chancellor, Lord Gardiner, has asked Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home to intervene to stop Hongkong pushing through its four controversial anti-crime laws.

And I understand Government here has already had a change of heart and plans to drop one of the laws, which increases the powers of magistrates

courts.

It is also thought that Government is likely to agree to modify another of the laws, which brings in preventive detention for "habitual criminals."

Lord Gardiner is believed to have written to the Foreign Secretary in his capacity as Chairman of Justice, the British section of the International Commission of Jurists which has a great deal of prestige and influence in Britain.