TNAG-0400-FCO40-446-Review-of-the-death-sentence-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 172

in

PRIME MINISTER

PM/73/30

CONFIDENTIAL

Dj

tribution

PS/ Mr Royle

PS/ PUS

Mr Wilferd fir V. Evans

24)

Mr Watts (L.A.)

HKLOD to

Death Sentence in Hong Kong

enter

A young man who lately committed murder in Hong Kong was sentenced to death by the Hong Kong Supreme Court and his appeal dismissed. After receiving the advice of the Executive Council (with no dissent but two abstentions) the Governor has ordered

that the law should take its course. He has not yet made public

a date for the execution.

2. The prisoner has now petitioned The Queen for mercy and it falls to me to advise Her Majesty whether there are any grounds

for clemency or whether the Governor's decision should stand.

3.

My legal advice is that under rules laid down by

Mr. Creech-Jones in 1947 and endorsed by me after we took office,

the prime responsibility rests upon the Governor and that unless there has been a miscarriage of justice or new material, the Secretary of State would normally advise that Her Majesty should

not intervene. I would so act and take the responsibility, but

for the recent debate in the House of Commons and for the faci

that we intend to remove the death penalty from the law of

Northern Ireland. The carrying out of an execution, the first j.

Hong Kong since 1966 would be in sharp contrast to what is bring

said and done here.

4. The Governor told me when I was in Hong Kong that crimes of violence were alarmingly on the increase (140% in the last

4 years) and that the public were getting very restive and losi

CONFIDENTIAL

/confidence