TNAG-0400-FCO40-446-Review-of-the-death-sentence-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 126

In order to justify a change (immediately in the

Hong Kong case) in the present practice regarding the

exercise of the Prerogative of Mercy, a public

announcement of HMG's intention to bring about the

abolition of the death penalty in all dependent

territories would be necessary.

Such an announcement

would however have to be made in the knowledge of

likely opposition to such a measure by Colonial

legislatures and of the difficulty of legislating in

the UK against local opinion in the territories.

An

announcement merely of intention to ask the dependent

territories to consider the abolition of capital

punishment would be open to the objection, in the case

of Hong Kong, that an immediate reaction in favour of

the retention of capital punishment could be expected

from the unofficial members of the Governor's Executive

Council (and hence it would not appear as sufficient

justification for commuting the death sentence in the

present case): and generally that the outcome

of such a review in the

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