TNAG-0486-FCO40-551-Review-of-death-sentence-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 10

maintenance of the death penalty in Hong Kong

must be in question until the new government has

fully reviewed the issue.

8.

If you decided to reprieve Liu Chu we would

then be able to submit the whole issue to Ministers

without the pressures imposed by an impending

case, and (as I would personally wish to do) to

advocate a return to the Creech Jones formula (of

support for your decisions except in the case of

a miscarriage of justice), as an option which should

be seriously considered. In our judgement, for

the reasons outlined above, they would only be

willing to do this if the Liu Chu case was out of

the way.

9.

Please come back to us if you have any further

queries before sounding Executive Council on the 12th.

We suggest that, however you decide to proceed,

these ExCo soundings should be purely informal

and unrecorded. We would then like the opportunity

to consider their results with you on a personal

basis, so that we can concert with you further

action in Hong Kong and presentation to Ministers here.

10. I will certainly keep in mind the possibility

of a visit here by yourself, but have not yet had any

opportunity to take Ministerial temperatures on

Hong Kong. I am also still looking for the moment

to re-propose myself for a visit to you.

&

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