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R. RUSHFORD
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Judges for Hong Kong
15th November 1978
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HKA 373/39313 "A 12. NOV 1978
DESK
INDEX
N.
Me
I would be grateful is you could look at the attached copies of
correspondence passing between Sir Denys Roberts and myself.
MAY NO. 51
The occasion for Roberts's letter was a discussion I recently
had with him about the difficulties the Hong Kong Government has experienced
in finding a new Attorney General. In the case of our discussion, Roberts
reverted to the earlier suggestion that an English High Court Judge might do
a spell in Hong Kong.
As you will see, what he is now proposing is something different,
namely that we should increase the strength of the High Court, on the basis
that there would be a continual commitment to making one or more of the judges available to man the Supreme Court (if that is the correct expression) in
Hong Kong.
Action Take
I do not think we have ever done anything like this and one could
not recommend it without very full discussions with the senior judges here
and others. I think there could, from our own point of view, be serious
objections of principle. But the first, and most obvious, question is whether
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office would regard it as a retrograde step in
that it would detract from the prestige of the Colonial Judiciary. A further,
and equally obvious, point is that the importation of judges from England might
arouse local resentment, not only among the practising Bar in Hong Kong and
the judges there, but also among members of the population at large.
I have warned Roberts that much consultation is going to be needed before he gets a considered answer. There is, therefore, no desperate hurry;
but I would be grateful for the departmental views of F. and C.0. before very
long.
Bu Noted for
LAGT
REF
27
NEAL
net.
X36/37
(20)8079/
A. R. Rushford, Esq., C.M.G.
Your sincerely, ва
Life Banne
J. W. Bourne
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