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A
吧
to abolish the death sentence in Hong Kong
by order in Council in the UK?
Clearly we cannot give an answer to these questions before the
elections. Much will depend on which party wins and by what
majority. It may be, as foreshadowed to some extent in the
Home Office views quoted in our telegram no 106, that a new
Government will find difficulty both in supporting a decision
to execute Liu and in abolishing the death sentence in Hong Kong
by Order in Council. If this were to be so, the Governor would
like to be told frankly.
3.
In his telegram no 225, the Governor says that, in his
personal view, the only realistic ground for commutation may lie
in the prisoner's history of drug addiction, even though neither
medical nor psychiatric advice, nor the defence, nor the Court,
saw anything in the argument. He suggests that he might clear
the point up as soon as possible by an informal discussion in
ExCo. Two members of ExCo, Sir Albert Rodrigues and Dr Choa,
are doctors with substantial expertise on the subject. But when he consults ExCo, even informally, the Governor will presumably wish to fully aware of all the considerations, including in particular the political realities at the time in this country. Since we cannot give him guidance on this aspect before the elections, it seems wise for him to dealy consulting ExCo until
we can. Meanwhile, however, it might be useful if he could
speak privately to the two doctor members. If their advice were to be that they saw adequate medical/psychiatric grounds for
/commutation
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