TNAG-0728-FCO40-931-Appointment-of-Commissioner-Against-Corruption-in-Hong-Kong-1978 — Page 25

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(and I think loss of public confidence) if there were appointed to the Bench (let alone to the highest judicial post) some body who had been away from the courts for as long as 10 years. Both the English and Scottish Law Officers appear reasonably frequently in court. A third factor is, as I understand it, that, while in the past it has been common practice for the Attorney General of a colonial territory to be appointed Chief Justice of another colonial territory, it has not been the practice to appoint an Attorney General to the highest judicial post in his own territory and that, again, is something which might cause some loss of public confidence in the appointment of Roberts as Chief Justice in a territory where he has held successively the political offices of Attorney General and Chief Secretary.

For these reasons, if I had to judge the situation against an English background, I should feel very considerable hesitation before advising Ministers that the Governor's proposal could be safely accepted.

To turn to the proposal to second Yang, J. to the I.C.A.C.: here again, as I see it, the primary consideration is whether this proposal could lead to loss of public confidence in the impartiality of the Judiciary and that is a question that can arise only on his return to the Bench. There have been incidents of English Judges being seconded to non-judicial

posts and returning to the Bench thereafter. The best known case is that

of the Earl of Reading who, while retaining his office as Lord Chief Justice, was appointed Ambassador to the United States in, I think, 1916 or 1917.

As far as I am aware, that appointment did not affect confidence in him on

his return after the war but perhaps one cannot regard it as a close enough

parallel to enable one to draw any conclusions. Nor do I think that there

is any real parallel between what is proposed and the secondment of a

High Court Judge to the Chairmanship of the Law Commission. letter and the Governor's telegram, it seems to me that the Chairmanship of I.C.A.S. must be politically a very sensitive appointment and I would have thought it very unsafe to assume that, in the course of the next 2 or 3

years the Chairman will not become involved in political issues to an

extent which would make it difficult for him to maintain that aura of

From your