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LORD GORONWY-ROBERTS
· SECRETARY OF STATE
THE DEATH PENALTY IN HONG KONG
63) 1.
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I attach, for information of Ministers, a copy of a personal telegram which I have received from the Governor in Hong Kong, in connection with recent correspondence with him about dealing with P.Q's on this subject.
2.
The death penalty for murder still exists in Hong Kong as in certain other dependent territories. The Royal Prerogative of Mercy is exercised by the Governor on his undivided personal responsibility, after consultation with his Executive Council. The nominated unofficial members of Executive and Legislative Councils, reflecting public opinion in the Colony, are opposed to abolition of capital punishment; but it is accepted policy that the death sentence should be applied only in extreme cases. 3. In fact, no-one has been hanged in Hong Kong since 1965. But difficulty arose in mid-1973 when, in the case of a convicted murderer named Tsoi, the Governor considered that he must allow the law to take its course. The convicted man then presented
a petition to The Queen for the exercise of Her residual Prerogative. of Mercy, a step which formally involves the Secretary of State in advising Her Majesty. The doctrine in dealing with the awkward problem presented by such petitions was originally laid down in 1947 in a despatch from Mr Creech-Jones to Colonial Governors, to the effect that the Secretary of State would in practice advise the Monarch to intervene only if there had been a manifest miscarriage of justice. The Tsoi case coincided with
parliamentary debate in the United Kingdom on the death penalty generally and its application in Northern Ireland. In all the circumstances, the Secretary of State advised Her Majesty that Tsoi should be reprieved.
4.
There was in consequence much resentment in Hong Kong, on the grounds that local opinion had been overriden because of what appeared to be domestic political considerations in the UK. The issue has threatened to become a continuing sore in relations with the Colony, and much thought has been given to it, even to the extent of considering possible action by HMG to abolish the death penalty altogether, as a less undesirable alternative
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