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LAW, ORDER AND RECORDS
an appellate jurisdiction in stamp appeals, rating appeals and appeals from the Tenancy Tribunal.
The Supreme Court's civil jurisdiction is similar to that of the King's Bench and Chancery Division of the English High Court. It also exercises jurisdiction in probate, divorce, admiralty, lunacy, bankruptcy and company winding-up matters. The most serious criminal offences are tried by a judge of the Supreme Court sitting with a jury of seven. (A summary of cases heard and dealt with in the Supreme Court, the District Court, the Tenancy Tribunals and the Magistracies for the years 1958-63 will be found in Appendix IX).
The highest court in Hong Kong is the Full Court. It sits as occasion requires and is constituted of two or more judges of the Supreme Court as the Chief Justice directs. The Chief Justice usually presides over this court which hears appeals from the Supreme Court and the District Court and has jurisdiction cor- responding roughly to that of the Court of Appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeal and the Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division.
Final appeals from Hong Kong go to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London.
THE HONG KONG POLICE FORCE
Although the responsibility for the protection of life and prop- erty and the prevention and detection of crime rests equally on all police officers, the role played by the Criminal Investigation Department in dealing with the modern criminal is of vital im- portance, especially in a city like Hong Kong. Its dense population and complex society, coupled with its unique position as a centre of industry, trade and tourism are all factors which tend to attract the international crook, well-skilled in the art of commercial fraud and malpractice and who is becoming an increasingly more fre- quent visitor to the Colony.
About 10 per cent of the Hong Kong Police Force establishment is now allocated to the CID whose specialized sections are staffed by trained men equipped with up-to-date laboratories and other modern aids. The department is directed by an assistant commis- sioner. The principal divisions of CID headquarters are adminis- tration, technical aids (including forensic laboratory, ballistics,
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