222257-1935-Supplementary-Draft-Bills--Summary-Offences-Amendment-Official-Signatures-Fees — Page 1

1538

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Draft Bills.

No. S. 220.-The following Bills are published for general information :-

(C.S.O. 4315/35).

A BILL

[No. 27-29.7.35.-3.]

Short title.

New section 19A to

Ordinance No. 40 of 1932.

Offences in connection with

telephone

calls or

messages or telegrams. 25 Geo. 5, c. 15,

s. 10 (2).

INTITULED

An Ordinance to amend the Summary Offences Ordinance,

1932.

Be it enacted by the Governor of Hong Kong, with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:-

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Summary Offences Amendment Ordinance, 1935.

2. The Summary Offences Ordinance, 1932, is amended by the addition of the following section after section 19 thereof:

19A. Every person who---

(a) sends any message by telegraph, telephone, wireless telegraphy or wireless telephony which is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character; or

(b) sends by any such means any message, which he knows to be false, for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to any other person; or

(c) persistently makes telephone calls without reasonable cause and for any such purpose as aforesaid,

shall be liable to a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars and to imprisonment for any term not exceeding one month.

Objects and Reasons.

Section 2 of this Ordinance inserts in the principal Ordinance a new section 19A based on the provisions of section 10 (2) of the Post Office (Amendment) Act, 1935, (25 Geo. 5, c. 15) relating to the sending of grossly offensive matter by telephone, and to false and malicious telephone messages and telegrams. Paragraphs (a) and (b) have been adapted so as to include messages by telegraph, telephone, wireless telegraphy or wireless telephony.

C. G. ALABASTER,

Attorney General.

July, 1935.