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CONFIDENTIAL
The same form of words was used in reply to various bodies (Amnesty International, the Association against Capital Punishment, etc.) who sought to intervene at that period.
The Governor, for his part, believed that the point had been taken in London. After his initial telephone call to
Mr. Stratton on 21 November he was subsequently, he recalls, reassured in a further telephone call from either Mr. Stratton or Mr. Stewart and told that his part in the proceedings would be kept out of any statements.
A day or two later a story reached him (he could not remember how) that the Secretary of State had told the Parliamentary Labour Party in London that the decision not to commute had rested with the Governor. The Governor therefore telephoned the Resident Clerk, who consulted one of the Private Secretaries, and then replied that the Secretary of State had not in fact been at the PLP meeting in question and anyhow the point was well taken. I have not checked with anyone this end on their recollection of the various telephone calls referred to in these last two paragraphs.7 In the light of the various reassurances thought he had received, the Governor was accordingly dismayed to learn that the Secretary of State's prepared statement to the House of Commons on 5 December referred to the fact that the new Governor had been consulted over the petition and "he decided that there were no grounds for changing the decision of the Acting Governor". In the Governor's view, this was aggravated by, for example, the replies given to Mr. Latham, to Mr. Pavitt and to Mr. Bidwell.
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I should say in passing that the Governor's feelings about the Parliamentary exchanges were further aggravated by the fact that he felt words had been put into his mouth about judgement on the law and order situation. On 30 November FCO telegram 37 to Hamilton reported the Patrick Keatley article and asked for a report on public reactions. The FCO telegram added:
"You may consider that while the executions may carry the risk of accompanying disorder and of damage to racial harmony, reprieves would have very serious repercussions since it seems clear that the people of Bermuda as a whole support capital punishment and that this support is spread across racial lines. We assume that you are confident that the police can deal with any trouble that arises."
The Governor replied the same day (in his telegram Personal No. 38) that the Commissioner of Police was satisfied that he should be able to handle the disturbances, though one could not of course be certain. He did not (then) comment directly on the suggestion in the FCO telegram that the executions would cause less trouble than reprieves.
However on 2 December, in the context of the emotional scenes of the last night before the execution with three separate
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CONFIDENTIAL
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