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DSR 11C
(the Buitish Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Turks & Caicos Islands, and Hongkong)
(Bermuda, Belize
and mon'tsanat),
course would probably prove disadvantageous. Most of the
probably governments, if not all, would reject such an appeal and if they did so this would make it very difficult for us subsequently to take any action contrary to such so recent an expression of local wishes. I have reason to believe that unilateral action taken by us would be better received.
4. I have also considered introducing a Bill into Parliament to abolish or suspend the death penalty for murder unilaterally throughout the dependent overseas territories. From the purely legal point of view this would be the best solution. But there are a number of inherent difficulties, not least of which would be the virtual impossibility of finding parliamentary time for a Bill this session. We could legislate quickly by Order in Council in respect of four territories but this is not possible for the other three and our objective must be comprehensive. A further difficulty concerns Hong Kong where, since 1973, the Governor has managed to maintain a policy by which all capital sentences are automatically commuted. He estimates that legislation in the British Parliament would cause severe local reactions among the Chinese population, who believe strongly that the death penalty should be retained as part of the law in Hong Kong.
The new dor
5. We are left then with some measure to enable the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary to override Governors and their advisory committees in cases where they have decided that the law should take its course. This could be done either by an outright abrogation of the Creech-Jones doctrine or by a combination of the promise of legislation and, as an interim measure until such legislation could be introduced, abandonment of the Creech-Jones doctrine.
6. We could inspire a Motion calling on the Government to introduce legislation to abolish capital punishment in the DOTs and, if the Motion was passed, say that until such legislation were introduced the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary would in future himself consider all capital cases and take into account all relevant considerations,
/including
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