en
dia
found
of mercy. nt of gi Patent gates his
cases ides both er either the lesser
sentence. give a
s
ctions pardon in
a written must con uncil, dge, and notes of himself
on or re-
1. The
Colonial ar, there uments is Governor. vernor in two of
and at
es on two lained in ve Coun th I have
ise,
of the ed, as I
133
Written Answers
11 AUGUST 1947
ondon remote from the scene of the rime. It is unlikely that, if it were once anderstood that the Secretary of State is ready to intervene, numerous petitions rould be sent to him or to His Majesty, and their consideration by him would be physically impossible, In capital cases, their mere consideration would cause just that delay which it is necessary to avoid.
that the Colonial don does his own I under- petition ying for im what,
upon it. retary of
imself to d not to
There Its if the
But further, and more important, for the Secretary of State to intervene would conflict with the plain intention of the con- itutional instruments I have referred to, which set up a better machinery for de- aiding these matters than anything the and Secretary of State could do here; would be contrary to the common sense of the situation, since the Governor, know- ng all the circumstances, is in a better position to judge whether the prerogative
er course. him to
case and upon it. culty in
A
Written Answers
#34
number of persons respectively within and outside the Colonies etc., who listen to such broadcasts.
Mr. Creech Jones, pursuant to his reply [OFFICIAL REORT, 7th May, 1947; Vol. 437; c. 401], supplied the following information:
(1) In the British Colonies, etc., out- side Africa the languages other than Eng- lish which may be called principal In in the sense of being common to the greatest number; are
mercy should be exercised in any par- icular case. To this must be added the further consideration that the best safe- guard for a careful decision in so grave a matter is the undivided responsibility of the person who makes it. I do not, bowever, say that, if some exceptional case were brought to the Secretary of State's notice in which there were an in- dication that a miscarriage of justice had occurred, he would shut his eyes to it. The Secretary of State would communi- cate with the Governor as the case re- quired. The Governor would make any further investigations which might bo necessary, and would obviously not pro- ceed with the carrying out of a sentence if there were any real doubt about the It is inconceivable that, in order to prevent a miscarriage of justice in such a case, I should have to advise Hig
'
case.
I
Majesty to intervene, and in practice, therefore, it is highly improbable that intervention by His Majesty on the advice of the Secretary of State would ever take place. I am convinced that to follow any other course would seriously impair the administration of justice in the Colonies.
Broadcasts (Languages)
Sinhalese, understood by approximately
four million;
Chinese (of various dialects), under- stood by approximately four million; Tamil, understood by approximately
three million;
Malay, understood by approximately
three million;
Arabic, understood by approximately
two million.
(2) In the East African territories of Konya, Tanganyika, Uganda and Zanzi- bar, the total population of which is about 13 million, Kiswahili is widely under stood but in varying forms and degrees.
4
(3) Hausa is spoken by nearly five million people in The Northern Provinces of Nigeria and the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast. In addition, it is understood to some extent by a number, which cannot be at all accurately osti- mated, of the peoples of other language groups in British West Africa.
36. Mr. Keeling asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will issue in the Official RepORT a statement of the principal languages, other than English, understood in the Colonies, and Trust Territories, showing the estimated number of persons untlerstanding each language, the languages in which the B.B.C. broadcasts and, the estimated
(4) Of the other main African languages Ibo and Yoruba are understood by at least four and thfee million people respec- tively. Akan (fwi, Fanti and Ashanti), Nyanza and Banda may each be very broadly estimated to be understood by between one and three millions.
in (5) The B.BC. broadcasts the following languages, other than English, understood by an appreciable number of people in the Colonies: Arabic, Chinese (Cantonese, Hokkien, Kuoyu), French, Greek and Turkish (for Cyprus), Hin- dustani, Malay, Maltese, Sinhalese and
Tamil.
(6) No 'comprehensive estimate is pos- sible of the number of people outside the Colonies who listen to the B.B.C.'s broadcasts in the languages listed above, and in any est mato of the number of listeners to such broadcasts within the
Page 60Page 61