CONFIDENTIAL
anges
Options for Action
7. We have examined three ways in which we could bring
about change:
administrative action;
i)
ii)
local legislation in the six Dependent Territories;
iii) legislation in the UK.
Administrative action has been sufficient to deal with the
problem in Hong Kong because of the constitutional position. In 1973 (when abolition of the death penalty was being debated here), the then Foreign Secretary intervened to prevent an execution in Hong Kong and since then Governors have invariably commuted. In Hong Kong's case, the justification for commutation has been that in the absence of an elected legislature, special attention should be paid
to the views of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
Constitutionally the Caribbean Dependent Territories and Bermuda are more advanced: their Legislative Councils are fully elected. Overriding the views of a fully elected body on such an emotive issue would be politically more difficult, and would be constitutionally improper in view of the obligation imposed on Governors by the territories' Constitutions to consult those bodies in each individual
case.
8. Local Legislation would require a programme of pressure and publicity in all six territories. Success could not be
/guaranteed
CONFIDENTIAL