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What we see here are violent criminals who have no respect for human lives, and we can only hope to stop them by reintroducing the death penalty, the paper added.
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Sing Pao (13.12.75) said however, that the people were not too upset because they were psychologically prepared for results of the vote. The Commons vote meant that the death penalty would not be restored in Hong Kong either, it added.
The paper said: "We must now warn the public on one point, and that is, never fight a robber alone. We have reached this conclusion because of Britain's decision not to restore the death penalty. 11
The paper said that we should look ahead and promote crime prevention in the coming winter, and also the Police should send out more patrols.
Wah Kiu Yat Po (15.12.75) said the fact that capital punishment had been abolished in Britain and not in Hong Kong, although it had not been carried out here for years, showed that we needed the death penalty morc than Britain.
The British people, the paper pointed out, had felt it necessary to call for the restoration of the death penalty after only nine people had been killed by terrorists.
So, it was only natural for Hong Kong to demand the reintroduction of capital punishment as the homicide toll had already exceeded 100 this year.
The paper continued: "There is no reason for Britain to ban the restoration of the death penalty in Hong Kong.
"With the exception of some legal and religious personalities, most organisations, Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council, and the people of Hong Kong, support the reintroduction of capital punishment."
Wah Kiu said, however, that the British Government would not allow Hong Kong to restore hanging because it was afraid that the move would spark off an attack by the Opposition Farty.
Hong Kong Daily News (12.12.75) said that no one in Hong Kong really wanted the death penalty. "But if the situation proves that capital punish- ment can solve the problems of law and order more 'appropriately', then the stern measure of the death penalty is necessary to deal with some extremely bad elements," it said.
"For instance," ?? the paper went on, "with public assent, policemen could shoot suspects who refused to surrender on-the-spot as well as those who tried to attack policemen on beat duty."
Sing Tao Jih Pao (12.12.75) said that education, housing and social welfare schemes were long-term projects that could not help solve the problems of law and order "overnight".
The paper said that what Hong Kong needed now was the reintroduction of the death penalty to protect the public's lives and property.