through Orders in Council, without the consent of local legislatures.
'W. E. Quan hill
WE Quantrill
24 August 1979
Hong Kong and General Department
cc: WIAD
M&CD
Legal Advisers
There is no hurry to reach a decision about this: the last outstanding death sentence was recently commuted by the Governor of Belize. As they have been involved in this question ever since the executions in Bermuda nearly two years ago, I think Mr Cortazzi and the PUS may wish to consider this question before it is submitted to Ministers.
2.
In my view the size of the recent vote in the House of Commons in favour of maintaining abolition of the death penalty makes it essential for us to grasp this nettle and to introduce legislation to abolish capital punishment in the dependencies. I think that maintenance of the Creech-Jones, Doctrine will increasingly place an unfair burden of decision on governorsin
R.V. Shotton
RJ Stratton
28 August 1979 .
1. Mr Stratton's conclusion is supported by the logic, but I see real political difficulties in achieving such a solution. While the Government with Labour Party backing could no doubt
CONFIDENTIAL
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