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Mr wford
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Minister. HKILILHO
A.R.V
HKK 14/16
REPRIEVE OF TSOI IN HONG KONG: PRESS AND PUBLIC REACTION
1.
PIA
Although we have not yet received any substantial
comments from the Governor about public reaction to the
reprieve, the indications from press cuttings are that the
reaction is not quite as strong as we had feared. But a
"million signatures" campaign to retain the death penalty
is being started.
2.
---
Opinion is mostly against the reprieve although for
once we have Mrs Elsie Elliott on our side, as well as the
churchmen and lawyers. There is however no criticism of
the Hong Kong Government or the Governor himself. Most
people seem to have interpreted the reprieve as an act of
clemency by The Queen, but the FCO have been criticised for
being out of touch with the Hong Kong situation.
One paper
suggests more visits by officials as a remedy! Except for
the Ming Pao, the Chinese language papers seem to have
ignored the connection between Tsoi's reprieve and the
Northern Ireland vote.
The South China Morning Post (16 May) links the two: they
are headlined side by side on the front page. Their leader,
referring to both the Northern Ireland debate and the recent
vote on capital punishment in the House of Commons, says: -
"In the light of this, it was hardly likely that The
Queen, acting on the advice of her Ministers in London, could have made any other decision but to commute Tsoi's sentence."
The paper is almost alone amongst the press in welcoming
the reprieve.
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