HKIOD
CONFIDENTIAL
185
Death Penalty in Hong Kong
Mr. Crowson and I discussed with the Secretary of State his comments on Mr. Stuart's submission of 22 August about the death penalty in Hong Kong. The Secretary of State agreed that it was necessary to have a procedure established for handling further cases when they arise. He agreed that this should be settled at the meeting with Sir M. Maclehose. The Secretary of State felt clear that Ministers in London must have the opportunity to comment on Governors recommendation before taking a decision on whether to uphold the Governor's view. The Secretary of State would not therefore accept paragraph 3 of Hong Kong Telegram No. 997 from the Acting Governor suggesting that there would be no need to allow time for Ministers to query points in the Governor's assessment.
2.
The Secretary of State was uncertain about the position of Appeals for Mercy to The Queen. We explained that the Governor would have given his decision some while before an Appeal for Mercy would be addressed to The Queen; that if Ministers had decided to uphold the Governor's view then the advice to The Queen would be to reject the Petition, or that if Ministers had decided to change the law a Petition to The Queen would no longer be necessary. The Secretary of State said that it was always possible that the Petition to The Queen would produce new evidence. We said that while this was unlikely, if it did happen, then it would certainly provide grounds for a reassessment and, if the verdict was changed the Governor's position would be defensible because there had been new evidence.
3. I am not sure whether the draft telegrams now need to be sent to Hong Kong prior to the meeting with the Governor. As I understand it the Acting Governor having conveyed the same set of suggestions to us we do not need to convey them to him. The outstanding points seem to be:
a)
b)
whether time should be left for Ministers to query the Governor's recommendation;
whether there are legal comments on the draft Order in Council.
CONFIDENTIAL
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