anything which British Ministers could do, short of agreeing; to a revival of the death penalty, to tighten up penal sanctions in Hong Kong, in a way that would help the fight against crime and maintain public confidence by blunting the edge of the popular demand for the death penalty.
15.
Sir Murray MacLehose acknowledged the force of Lord Goronwy-Roberts's political judgment on this issue. There was no doubt that public opinion in Hong Kong overwhelmingly supported the death sentence in extreme cases, and he was bound to advise that the Creech Jones formula was the right policy for Hong Kong. Nevertheless, he had already warned ExCo that in present circum- stances no UK Secretary of State would be likely to permit an execution in Hong Kong. He would, however, need to ask Ir Calleghna on 24 June for an explicit statement on whether the Creech Jones formula could be revived. ExCo had agreed that it would be better to avoid a confrontation with the UK, and themselves to advise reprieves. But this understanding rested on ExCo's trust in his own unsupported judgment of the situation in the UK. It might not anyway survive. He needed to be able to reinforce his own opinion with a clear statement from UK Ministers.
16.
Sir Murray agreed that it would also be worth examánirg possible other extensions of penal sanctions. A major problem in Hong Kong was violent crime inspired by the Triad societies, which were virtually a Hong Kọng Mafia. If hardened criminels were no b to be deterred by the death penalty it might be possible to approzch the problem of the Triad societies in other ways, such as un extension of Preventive Detention for hardened criminals. This would
also do something to maintain public confidence.
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