A
Sir A Duff
PS/Mr Rowlands
Private Secretary
22
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE DEPENDENT OVERSEAS TERRITORIES
1.
In my view the draft letter for Ms Jenny Little is too thin. The other day I signed a political letter on this subject which went into some detail about the constitutional position over capital punishment in the dependent territories what happened when the UK Parliament first suspended and subsequently abolished the death penalty. A letter setting out at some length the factual background to the present position and ending with a statement that, when Parliamentary time permits and if Parliament wishes, the Government would be prepared to look at the report of the UK Parliament in this field, would be preferable to a short, politically frank, statement. On reflection it would seem to me preferable to make a number of factual points and let their consequences speak for themselves rather than to be as explicit as Mr Quantrill's draft.
David Funk
David Stephen Political Adviser
19 April 1978
Copied to:
PS/Lord Goronwy-Roberts PS/PUS
Mr Cortazzi
WIAD
tka 386/1
RECEP*
28 APR 1978
V
Taken
No 1 (sts. I fe