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and Defence summings up at the trial covered the petitioner's
He also considers that the Judge's
case fairly and adequately.
summing up of the case was fair and correct. The petitioner's
defence was rejected by the jury who reached a unanimous verdict
of guilty after 4 hours deliberation.
4. In the view of the department's legal adviser, while it is
not possible in a case of this kind to say simply from reading
the files whether or not the accused did commit the murder of
which he was convicted (and indeed it would be wrong to attempt
to substitute such an opinion for the decision reached at the
trial), it is his considered opinion that the papers in the case
do not suggest that there has been any miscarriage of justice.
He also considers that TSOI's petition to Her Majesty does not
contain any significant new material or reveal any grounds for
advising The Queen to intervene.
5. This legal opinion is based on the Secretary of State's
despatch HXC 14/501/3 of 13 May 1971 which confirmed Mr Creech
Jones' despatch and statement of 1947. The substance of this
despatch, as explained in my submission of 13 April 1973, was
that the Secretary of State would normally only intervene, either
directly or through his advice to the Sovereign, in the Governor's
exercise of his delegated responsibilities under the Letters
Patent and Royal Instructions, if there were indications that a
miscarriage of justice had occurred. In his telegram No 422, however,
the Governor dealt with the possibility that the Secretary of State
might wish to intervene for other reasons arising from the
political situation in the United Kingdom. The Governor advised
that such intervention would precipitate a substantial crisis in Hong Kong and would, he believed, be wrong.
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