SK Tavy.
CHARITY COMMISSION
ST. ALBAN'S HOUSE, 57-60 HAYMARKET, LONDON SWIY 4QX
DIRECT LINE 01-
-4419
TELEPHONE
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210
SWITCHBOARD 01-210 3000
Iain McLeod Esq
Legal Advisers Branch
Foreign & Commonwealth office London SW1A 2AH
Dear MacLeod,
SIR S K TANG : CHARITABLE TRUST
Reid, 27Hi
20 November 1989
етре
Ако 2861/1
RECE!
07 DEC 1989
L
With further reference to my letter of 16 November I have done some further reading as promised. This convinces me that the trust is in fact a charitable one and that the lack of certainty implicit in the letter of 10 March 1986 about the objects is saved by the one single exception to the general principle that the donor under a trust must decide the specific destination of his property "because of the special favour which the English law allows to charities" see Viscount Simon LC in Chichester Diocesan Fund and Board of Finance (Incorporated) v Simpson [1944] AC 341, 348.
That said it seems clear to me that the purposes which were discussed with the donor in the correspondence of which you have supplied copies were equally charitable and I note that those discussions took place before the money was actually paid.
The books necessarily speak in terms of what occurs when there is an application to the court. Section 18 of the Charities Act 1960 (c.58) allows the court to refer such matters to the Commissioners for them to prepare or settle a scheme in accordance with such directions (if any) as the court sees fit to give see sub-section (2). Sub-section (1), however, gives the Commissioners power by order to "exercise the same jurisdiction and powers as are exercisable by the High Court in charity proceedings for the following purposes, that is to say:-
(a)
establishing a scheme for the administration of a charity;
(b)
In these circumstances I think that it is open to the Commissioners, on an application from you, to make a scheme if you find that there is no bar to obtaining the money from Hong Kong.
49/D
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