TNAG-0603-FCO40-751-Capital-punishment-in-Dependent-Territories-1977 — Page 99

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

Mr. Flannery: Will my right hon. Friend consider a date for a debate on the happenings in Bermuda, especially on the question of the Creech Jones formula, which seems to have tied the Foreign Secretary to a chain of events which resulted in the hangings in Bermuda?

Mr. Foot: I have seen the motion on the Order Paper which has been signed swiftly and understandably by a large number of Members of the House. At some stage the House will have to give attention to it. What my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary suggested- no doubt the House will agree-is that the whole of this question should be con- sidered in its general context and not as it applies to only one place. That is the way in which it should be looked at. On our return after the recess we shall have to look at it in that light.

That this House, viewing with deep concern the racial disorders which have followed the execution of two Bermudan citizens on 2nd December and deeply regretting the limitations imposed upon the Foreign Secretary in cases of inis sort by the Creech Jones formula, which does not permit intervention to prevent the use of capital punishment in a depen- dent territory unless some legal or con- stitutional irregularity has occurred, calls upon Her Majesty's Government to take urgent steps to abrogate this formula in so far as it applies to territories in which the ultimate responsibility for the main- tenance of law and order continues to lie with the Crown:

VOL 940

Col 16602

8 DEC 77

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