CONFIDENTIAL
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measure and will need to be convinced that there are
no alternatives which would meet the situation. One
such alternative which occurs to us is that unlawful
possession might carry the penalty of life imprisonment
and that the death penalty should be confined to the
offence of attempted murder by means of explosives,
etc.
3.
I imagine that you have yourself taken a look
at other precedents in colonial emergency legislation
and will know that the Malayan and Kenyan emergency
legislation on the question of explosives was
in severity
comparable to Hong Kong's 1950 legislation. Cyprus
legislation, on the other hand, was much less severe;
this drew a distinction between the use of explosives
with intent to cause death or injury to any person or
persons (which carried the death penalty) and
possession or use with intent to damage property
(which carried life imprisonment).
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