COME ADENOVANÁS
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1
181
file
Sir Hugh Norman-Walker KCMG OBE Acting Governor
HONG KONG
Telephone 01-
Your reference
Our reference
NKKIY/16
Date
30 August 1973
Dear Si Hush,
DEATH SENTENCES IN HONG KONG
28°C
1. We saw the outgoing telegram from the Governor as well as 118 your telegram No 965 confirming that this is the recommendation
of the Hong Kong Government.
The only
2. On the strength of this we have submitted to Ministers that we can and should adopt your proposed timetable. gloss is that we hope that, when the Governor warned the Secretary of State of his likely decision to let the law take its course, it would still be open to us to send comments which might conceivably help him to review his decision. This would mean that before taking either of the 2 courses proposed in your paragraph 3(d) the Secretary of State would be able to wait for the Governor's reaction to our comments. This would mean some delay in setting the necessary machinery in motion to change the law, if this was necessary; but assuming that the additional consultation did not take more than a week or so we would still hope to be able to conclude the whole process within the 8 week timetable, including 3 weeks for consideration by Executive Council.
3. My reason for writing informally to tell you this is that the Secretary of State will not be back in the Office until 6 September. Although he has seen the papers and does not dissent, we will not be able to send you a confirmatory telegram until the end of that week. Nevertheless we should have our end of this tied up in time for talks with the Governor on
11 September which, as you say, should lead to final agreement on policy and procedures.
4.
I am copying this letter to the Governor in Scotland to let him know how things stand.
CONFIDENTIAL
[Mr Wilford
PS]
Yous ever,
Dordrew Sh
AC Stuart
Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Department
место
1d9
To See with
RAK
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.