TNAG-0603-FCO40-751-Capital-punishment-in-Dependent-Territories-1977 — Page 141

Mr Stratton

Er Cortazzi

PS/PUS

CONFIDENTIAL

HKG 386/1

RECEIVED IN PSCISTRY NO. 51 12 DEC 1977

DESK OFFICER INDEX

Yes

REGISTRY

Action Taken

(3/8)

BERMUDA: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

A

1.

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Flag C

Flag D

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The Governor of Bermuda, Sir Peter Ramsbotham, has sent a Personal telegram to the PUS in which he makes various complaints about the statement made in the House of Commons on 5 December an

the recent hangings in Bermuda.

2.

The gist of Sir Peter Ramsbotham's complaints are as follows.

(8) That in the Secretary of State's statement and his answer to the supplementaries he implied firmly that it was the Governor

of Bermuda who took the decision to allow the executions and not the Secretary of State (paragraph 4 of the telegram). The Secretary of State was of course, right: the decision was taken in Bermuda and although the Governor may have taken the decision in the expectation that it would be overruled in London; nevertheless the well-known position under the Creech-Jones doctrine is that the Secretary of State will not intervene to

recommend to The Quem that she should overrule the Governor's

decision that the law should take its course.

(b) The Governor complains that we ignored his request that his rûle in confirming the Acting Governor's decision should not be made public (paragraph 5). What happened in this instance was that when the Governor was informed by our telegram no. 224 of the Secretary of State's decisiou not to intervene, he rang Mr Stratton to ask that any statements made in London should be restricted to the formula used in that telegram "having carefully considered all matters raised in the petition on behalf of the above I was unable to advise Her Majesty The Queen to intervene to prevent the law taking ita course" and on 22 November in his telegram no. Personal 36 reiterated his request. The reasons given by Sir P Ranbotham were that if it were thought in Bermuda that the decisien net to comzate the sentences on Burrows ked Teen19ad ghar dh was bike offenespor

CONFIDENTIAL