From: His Excellency The Hon. Sir Peter Ramsbotham, GCMG., GCVO.,
HKG 386/2 HKG 35
RECEIVED W
Rave
€
серд
Government House
51
Bermuda
- 6 MAR 1978
ве
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
No
PA
Re Stewart
20th February, 1978.
W.
H.A.H. Cortazzi Esq., CMG.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
London, S.W.1.
Sea 110
in
Pool
2772
Mr Duft Mr Slufart.
I must reply
Dear Hugh
of
on the Prerogative
A mercy.
I am
unhappy about this
Just a line to say how much I enjoyed my visit and how useful I thought the talks you arranged for me with the Foreign Office. We managed to pack a good deal into those few days and I have returned here in the knowledge that there is now a full understanding between us in Bermuda and you in Whitehall.
Thank you, too, for your hospitality at lunch, which gave me an excellent start for the week's round of talks in London.
24/11
Nothing much emerged from my conversation alone with Ted Rowlands. I think he would go along with the formula with which you summed up at your meeting:- "we were not against cosmetic changes and delegations of authority, so long as cumulatively they were not real changes which would leave the British having responsibility without power"; but he would, I think, want to be convinced that any changes were not more than "cosmetic". A good test for this will be the outcome of your consideration of my proposal to change the relationship between the Governor and the Prerogative of Mercy Committee, in respect of "advice" rather than "consultation about". You will see that I rather unfairly got the Secretary of State on my side, and I now wait to see whether you and the legal advisers will also come to agree that a new situation will arise if the Secretary of State acquires more flexibility for his own decisions in advising the Queen, as result of the forthcoming debate on capital punishment for the Colonies.
1
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