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The Bar in Hong Kong has recently taken the initiative of appointing a special sub-committee to assess the implications of the Carrian trial and the decision by Mr Justice Barker in respect of the six defendants.
The press comments in the South China Morning Post echoes the same sentiments and, as I know from my personal experience, they are widely held in the community in Hong Kong.
In the meanwhile, as I mention in an earlier letter, the Judge is continuing to sit in a judicial capacity and I am told has recently been. trying a case of capital murder.
I cannot see that anything is to be gained by further delay. If the Judge is unwilling to retire or resign, or the present Chief Justice (shortly to retire) is unwilling to grasp the nettle, I feel that in the interests of the administration of justice in Hong Kong, Mr Justice Barker should be suspended from sitting in Court any further in a judicial capacity, pending a formal and official enquiry into his fitness to act.
In the light of the enormous responsibilities which you carry in so many fields, I am sorry to raise with you again a matter which, by comparison, is of relatively small importance. Nevertheless, from the point of view of the integrity of the judiciary of Hong Kong, and the administration of justice for some six million people, it is a matter of overriding importance.
Shu
The Lord Benson
Encs
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