TNAG-1101-FCO40-1351-Legislation-on-homosexuality-in-Hong-Kong-including--Report--1981 — Page 575

Appendix C: Comparison of Cardinal Principles of Salmon Report

with the Conduct of the MacLənnan Commission

1. Adequate time should be taken to conduct proper investigations prior

to the commencement of public hearings in order to determine which

lines of enquiry are relevant.

Inadequate time was taken before the beginning of the first

(Nelligan, Q.C.) hearings which should not have begun until the

Commission knew something about the facts of the eans, Beveridge, Q.C,

took some two months to prepare before the hearings resumed (in which

time the investigations continued) although little or no discernable

benefit has resulted. As will appear from below, no effort has ever

been taken to weed out irrelevant lines of enquiry before evidence is

heard in the hearings,

2.

Before the hearings begin the Commissioner should publicly interpret

his terms of reference and indicate the extent of the intended lines

of enquiry (i.e. decide which lines are relevant and which are not);

thereafter only demonstrably relevant lines of enquiry be pursued in

the course of public hearings: ́and; irrelevant evidence should not

be made public.

The Commissioner has never publicly interpreted the terms

of reference or indicated which lines of enquiry are relevant or

The Commissioner was asked (in Chambers) in January,

irrelevant,

1981 by counsel for the Attorney General's Chambers to publicly

interpret the terms of reference and to rule on the relevance or

SECRET

/otherwise of