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Mr. Stevenson
Stevensons
Mr. Morgan
Morgan
CONFIDENTIAL
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The Release of Long-term Prisoners
I have been taking a preliminary look at precedents for the premature release of long-term prisoners in special circumstances following an emergency in a dependent territory. The emergency in Cyprus seems to provide the most useful example: research into the emergencies in Malaya and Kenya have not thrown up any appropriate examples.
Cyprus
2. On 27 February, 1959 an amnesty was declared in Cyprus after order had been restored generally within the island and the final truce signed on 24 December, 1958, following the unrest of the previous three years. Paragraph 3 of the amnesty statement says,
those persons serving sentences imposed for offences, other than offences involving violence against the person, committed for the furtherance of political objectives during the emergency will, with the exception of certain listed persons likely to be about twenty in number, be released as soon as possible and in any case not later than two months from this date."
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It must be said that the amnesty was declared in anticipation of the grant of independence to the island which was foreshadowed in the Zurich Agreement earlier in the same month. Independence was in fact granted in August 1960. To that extent therefore the situation in Cyprus in 1959 was not comparable with the present one in Hong Kong, since there is no question of granting independence to the Colony. However, the surrender terms proposed by the Government in August 1956 and March 1957, well before any idea of independence had been mooted, offered similar conditions. The parallels in the two situations are that an emergency situation had occurred within a British Colony involving violence and loss of life, order had been restored and in the broader context of ensuring further stability within the territory and removing possible sources of future conflict, prisoners were released. The amnesty did not of course include persons guilty of violence against the person. Those guilty of this offence were released, provided they agreed to leave Cyprus and not to return until given permission to do so by the Cyprus Government.
Colonial Office Despatch
In May 1960 the Colonial Office issued a circular
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CONFIDENTIAL
/despatch