577805-1938-Supplementary-Bill-read-a-first-time---Sedition-Amendment — Page 1

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LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL,

No. S. 458.-The following Bill was read a first time at a meeting of the Council held on the 24th November, 1938 :-

Short title.

Amendment of s. 3 (1) of Ordinance

No. 13 of 1938.

A BILL

INTITULED

[No. 24-2.11.38.-1.]

An Ordinance to amend the Sedition Ordinance, 1938.

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 Sedition Amend- ment Ordinance, 1938.

2. Section 3 of the Sedition Ordinance, 1938, is amended-

(a) by the repeal of the words "But it is not a seditious intention in the eighteenth line of sub-section (1) thereof, and the substitution of the following words therefor

"But an act, speech or publication is not seditious by reason only that it intends";

(b) by the repeal of the proviso at the end of sub-section (1) thereof.

Objects and Reasons.

1. Doubts have been expressed as to the effect of the proviso in section 3 (1) of the principal Ordinance, on the ground that it may be understood as nullifying to a large extent the provisions of the second part of the definition "seditious intention" which state what is not a seditious intention.

2. In order to remove these doubts, clause 2 of this Bill repeals the proviso and amends the second part of the definition accordingly.

C. G. ALABAster,

Attorney General.

November, 1938.