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take its course, but I believe that there is a risk of serious embarrassment to HMG in the event of a really sharp public reaction to commutation. With each reprieve of a convicted killer for whom there is nothing to be said, the position of all of us here who are involved, and for obvious reasons that of the Governor in particular, becomes more awkward. While some people may recognise that the matter is out of the Governor's hands, I suspect that the majority still believe that the Governor is in control of these decisions. From this they reason that the Government does not care And, though it is in a sense an entirely separate matter, their anxiety and frustration is the greater because we are not being very successful in com- batting violent crime at present. Nor do people generally think that the law is tough enough, or the courts severe enough in their punishments. There is a large measure of despair and we have just scraped through a bad patch when there were signs that people might take the law into their own hands. Unofficial Members of Executive Council have so far shown themselves willing to avoid a repetition of the damaging clash of the TSOI affair and we have mercifully been fortunate in the cases that have come up in the past few months. The LIU Chu formula can at best only be a short term solution, and this brings me to Question (c).
9.
Question (c). If commutation continues automa- tically, regardless of the merits of individual cases, the Executive would have effectively abrogated the law which prescribes the death penalty for murder. That is a situation to which I can hardly subscribe as Attorney General. If we were moving towards abolition it would be easier, but, in my opinion, the LIU Chu formula cannot, as a matter of principle, continue to be followed indefinitely. There is an equally important practical aspect. It is a ceaseless struggle here to maintain community respect for the law, which is regarded by most people here as too liberal, out of touch with our needs and inadequately enforced by the courts. What is seen as a failure to comply with the law by the Governor himself, in such an important respect as the death penalty, leaves people bewildered. a degree, I fear, his position has been undermined. care which it is generally accepted that he has for people in other respects comes in question in the face of inaction in a matter on which the great majority of the community is united - the need to hang murderers, particularly those who kill ordinary, decent, peaceable citizens.
As Attorney General, of course, I am more concerned not only that he is put in the position of failing to uphold the law but that he does so in a manner so much at variance with mass opinion. In practical terms, it is grossly unfair to expect him to continue to commute on political grounds in difficult cases; in legal terms he is being asked to follow a course which is unjustifiable; in general, his office is being damaged.
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