FERSUNAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1
His Excellency
Sir Murray MacLehose KCMG MBE
Governor
HONG KONG
Telephone 01-
Your reference
Our reference
Date
2114
26 October 1973
:
LAM FO
1. In preparation for possible Ministerial consideration of this case if you decided that the law should take its course, we have shown the papers both to the FCO legal advisers and to the Home Office. In doing so I made it clear to the latter that we were not trying to get the Home Secretary to take the burden off the Secretary of State's shoulders, still less off yours, but simply to seek their advice on how the Home Secretary might have regarded the case if it had been one where he had a duty to advise The Queen.
2. I altach a copy of the reply and enclosure from the Home Office Under-Secretary concerned. I hope you will not regard this as interference in your exercise of the prerogative. But I think you may wish to read the Home Office comments, both because of any light they may throw on the present case, and also because you made it clear to me in discussing the Tsoi case that you expected to be briefed on the situation in the UK.
3. There is no change in the substantive position since you were here. Ministers had then, as you know, decided that it was important that the death penalty should only be used in the worst cases. FCO Ministers also still accept that, apart from the exceptional circumstances envisaged under the Creech Jones formula, the effective choice lies between supporting you and changing the law. There are no new external factors which might influence this choice. I will tell you if any seem likely to arise.
Yous
Adrew
drew St
A C Stuart
Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Department
ENC: 2
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