Registry Jo.
CURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret,
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
IVACY MARKING
In Confidence
DSR 11
DRAFT
To:-
Mr Greg Lee
General Secretary, Labour Club, School
of Oriental and African Studies
University of London
Malet Street
LONDON NC 1E 7HP
Type 1 +
From
Secretary of State
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
r
I am replying to your letter of 29 May, which was acknowledg- ed on 2 June, about Bermuda.
You
f
question David Stephen's statement in his letter to you of 19 April that the Bermuda House of Assembly's decision to retain the death penalty was a decision of a body demo- cratically elected by the entire adult population of the territory. Under the Bermuda constitution British subjects, that is citizens of any Commonwealth country, of the age of twenty-one years or upwards who either possess Bermudian status or have been ordinarily resident in Bermuda through- out the immediately preceeding period of three years, are qualified to vote in elections to the House of Assembly. There is no discrimination on grounds of race or colour. Opinion is divided in Bermuda on whether the voting age should be lowered and whether the three year residential qualification for Commonwealth citizens is desirable: however the latter qualification is similar to provisions in many Commonwealth countries and the qualifying period in a number of countries including the United Kingdom is even shorter. Nevertheless, the Bermuda Government are conducting a canvass of opinion on these and other issues with a view to deciding whether any changes should be made.
In your letter you speak of constituencies in black areas containing four times as many voters as those in white residential areas. I attach a list of the number of registered voters at the last General Election in 1976 from which you will see that the smallest constituency (St George's North) contained 914 registered voters and
/the
Dd 427265 50CM 5 905275