ENG-1950 — Page 83

1935. The Deportation of Aliens (Amendment) Ordinance, 1950, widened the list of offences for which automatic deportation can take place upon conviction, failing proof that the convict is not an alien. Juveniles sentenced to detention for similar offences were brought within the purview of automatic deportation because ex- perience had clearly shown that a large number of juvenile offenders, who have no connexion with the Colony and whose good behaviour no person in the Colony can be found to guarantee, almost invariably : commit further offences if they remain in the Colony after release from detention. In so doing they acerbate the acute problem which is presented by juvenile delinquency in the Colony.

Changed circumstances in the Far East since the war were belatedly reflected in 1950 by legislation dealing with the composi- tion of the Supreme Court. The Full Court of the Colony is a Court In the constituted by two or more judges of the Supreme Court. Full Court Ordinance, 1933, provision existed, of practical value in the past, which enabled the services of judges of His Britannic Majesty's Supreme Court for China being secured so as to sit in membership of the Full Court. On the abolition of that Court an alternative arrangement had to be made. Agreement accordingly was reached with the Government of Singapore whereby it will be possible for the Chief Justice of Singapore to sit as a member of the Full Court of this Colony should it not be possible to constitute a Full Court without including a judge who has been concerned in a The Full Court case under appeal as a judge of first instance.

(Amendment) Ordinance, 1950, was accordingly enacted to give effect to that arrangement. A companion measure, the Supreme Court (Amendment) Ordinance, 1950, was also passed in furtherance of a reciprocal arrangement enabling the Chief Justice of Hong Kong to be a member of the Court of Appeal and Court of Criminal Appeal of Singapore.

In recent years reorganization of the legal departments within the public service of the Colony has been proceeding. Before the war there were, in addition to the Attorney General's Department, a Crown Solicitor's Department and a Land Office. In adddition there were a number of duties such as those of Registrar of Com- panies, which were performed either by the Registrar of the Supreme Court or by a Crown Counsel or Assistant Crown Solicitor specially appointed for the purpose. In 1949 the Registrar General's Estab- lishment Ordinance authorized the office of Registrar General (a newly-created office) to exercise the powers and duties of the Land Officer, the Registrar of Companies, the Registrar of Trade Marks and Designs, the Registrar of Patents, the Registrar of Marriages, Official Receiver in Bankruptcy and Official Trustee. In 1950 the Legal Officers Ordinance united as the Legal Department the Attorney General's and Crown Solicitor's departments, and included all the professional officers within the amalgamated departments in a comprehensive definition of "legal officer". Any legal officer as so defined, whether he be a barrister or solicitor, is now empowered by that Ordinance to perform functions of either barrister or solicitor because it has been found that it is neither practicable nor economical to maintain within the Government service the precise division between the functions of a solicitor and barrister which obtains in private practice in Hong Kong.

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