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assured us that this was deliberate.
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They have not explained
their reasons. It is arguable that the decision was wrong.
3. It is not, however, going to be easy to get agreement
to this in Whitehall. The Home Office have agreed in their
letter to me of 20 October that they would be prepared to look
at the matter as one of principle and policy. But Nationality
and Treaty Department believe there is no chance that the
Home Office will give a blanket agreement to send all offenders
back to the dependent territories regardless of the nature of
the offence of which they are charged. If this is so, the
best hope might be a specified list of offences in the dependent
would territories to which the double criminality rule/cease to apply.
We would have to consult the Governors about this, and I think
we should now do so. But this selective approach would get us
into deeper trouble with the Law Officers, who have said that
because of the anomalous nature of an offence under Section 10
of the Prevention of Bribery Ordinance, it is most unlikely
that the Attorney-General would regard it as one appropriate
for extradition.
4. The best hope is to present the Law Officers and the
Home Office with a wide spectrum of alternatives and ask them
to discuss them with us now. The discussions at official level
are not very likely to produce agreement, but they may isolate
the best or least offensive option, on which we could then seek
an agreement by Ministers in the context of the Prime Minister's
visit to Hong Kong in January.
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/5.