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2.
years ago.
Parliament has in the meantime decided against the re-introduction of the death penalty for terrorist
offences and I do not think there is much doubt that the majority of opinion in Parliament and informed opinion in this country generally remains in favour of its continuing abolition in all circumstances. If death sentences were
to be carried out in a dependant territory there would undoubtedly be strong adverse reactions in Westminster which we would wish to avoid. In addition, while no death sentence has been carried out since 1966 in Hong Kong (by far the largest of our remaining dependencies), public opinion there is still strongly in favour of the death penalty being applied and if a death sentence were to be carried out in another territory there would be a
strong demand for its restoration in Hong Kong.
4. I believe that we should now reconsider our policy towards capital punishment in the dependent territories. I have looked at various methods by which the death panalty might be abolished: the removal from Governors of the power to exercise the Prerogative of Marcy; an instruction to Governors to introduce local legislation to abolish capital punishment; and the introduction of a Bill in Parliament to abolish it unilaterally in the dependent territories. There are strong practical or constitutional objections to all those courses of action. Instead I propose that in each case where the Governor of a dependent territory decides against exercising the Prerogative of Mercy himself, I should automatically consider the case, having regard to all the circumstances which I consider relevant, including the repugnancy in which capital punishment is held by Parliament, before tendering advice to HM The Queen. In this way I would be free consistently to advise IIM The Queen to exercise her Prerogative of Mercy.
5.
The "Creech Jones" formala was announced in the House of Commons by means of an arranged Question. I propose
that the new policy should be ammounced in the same way
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CONFIDENTI AL
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