J Morgan Esq
Secretary
Talbot Branch Labour Party
30 Chelwood Avenue
Leeds 8
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
16 December 1977
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HKG 386/1
RECENT
NO. 51
2 0DEC 1977
1. NOFFIC. INDEX
REGISTRY Action Take
No
Ex
Dear Mr. Mage
352
Thank you for your letter of 8 December informing the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary of the resolution passed at your Branch meeting concerning the executions in Bermuda. David Owen has asked me to reply.
As you probably know, Dr Owen made a statement to the House of Commons on 5 December about the situation in Bermuda. I enclose an extract from Hansard giving the full text of the You will statement and of the exchanges which followed it. see that, under the policy which has been accepted for many years by successive British Governments, the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary's scope for intervention was very limited. The administration of justice in Bermuda is an internal matter, proper to the Bermudian Government. Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary could only intervene if he had reason to suspect that a miscarriage of justice might take place. In the recent cases, there was nothing in the evidence to suggest that this might happen, and therefore Dr Owen felt that there were no grounds on which he could advise Her Majesty The Queen to exercise her prerogative of mercy.
The
However, as you will see, in particular from the replies to the questions raised by Mr Newens, Mr Latham and Mr Winterton, the Government are prepared to review current policy on the whole complicated question of capital punishment in the dependent overseas territories, if it is Parliament's wish that they should do so.
Your manly
Dankturen
· David Stephen Political Adviser
370)
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