TNAG-0397-FCO40-443-Problem-of-increase-in-crime-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 162

At the same time the Hong Kong Government are

likely to accept modifications to the Criminal

Procedure (Amendment) Bill and the Public Order

(Amendment) Bill, designed to clarify the scope

of these new laws.

I do hope that you and your members will regard

these developments as satisfactory.

At the same

time I would ask that the members of your Hong Kong

branch should bear in mind the real problems facing

the Hong Kong Government, and should give what

support they properly can to measures to speed up

the administration of justice in the Colony, and to

deal with the current wave of violent crime. The

Governor's professional advisers are practising

lawyers with the same background as your members;

so are the judges and magistrates. The proposed

legislation is not intended to give the Hong Kong

Government greater influence over the Judiciary,

nor will it have this effect; while the suggestion

in Mr Litton's letter to Mr Sargant that the

Government's campaign against violent crime is an

exercise to whittle down judicial independence, is

of course a travesty of the facts.

I have written frankly.

will not take this amiss.

I hope that your members

The Governor bears a

heavy responsibility; he needs and deserves the

assistance and wise advice of the legal profession.

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