597580-1939-Supplementary-Draft-Bill--Offences-Against-the-Person-Amendment — Page 1

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54

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Draft Bill.

No. S. 35. The following Bill is published for general infor-

mation:

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(C.S.O. 2/4/5663/36.)

A BILL

INTITULED

[No. 1:-5.1.39.—1.]

Short title.

New sub- section (5) added to Ordinance No. 2 of 1865, s. 45A, as enacted by Ordin- ance No. 16 of 1938,

s. 2.

An Ordinance to amend section 45A of the Offences Against the Person Ordinance, 1865, as enacted by the Offences Against the Person Amendment 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 Offences Against the Person Amendment Ordinance, 1939.

2. Section 45A of the Offences Against the Person Ordinance, 1865, as enacted by section 2 of the Offences Against the Person Amendment Ordinance, 1938, is amended by the addition of the following sub-section at the end. thereof :-

(5) The consent of the person intended to be, or actually, unlawfully transferred, taken into possession, custody or control or harboured, or the receipt by such person of the consideration, or any part thereof, shall be no defence to a charge or indictment under this section.

Objects and Reasons.

1. Sub-section (4) of section 45A of the Offences Against the Person Ordinance, No. 2 of 1865, as printed in Volume I of the Ordinances of Hong Kong (1937 Edition), provided that it should be no defence to a charge under the section that the minor, whose transfer was the subject of a prohibited transaction, consented to it or received the whole or any part of its consideration.

2. The substituted section 45A, enacted by Ordinance No. 16 of 1938, which no longer limited the offence to transactions concerning minors and which made it indictable, contained no provision relating to the consent of the person transferred or to his receipt of any part of the consideration.

3. The object of this Bill is to add to the new section 45A of the principal Ordinance, a sub-section to the effect generally of the provision omitted in 1938..

January, 1939.

C. G. ALABASTER,

Attorney General.