CONFIDENTIAL
year, and he maintained that a PLP victory in the 1980 elections was not out of the question. I did not gather, however, that there was any plan to abandon the present parish boundaries, within which the constituencies are confined, so it does not seem to me that the Boundary Commission can do a lot of good.
Capital Punishment
9. The Governor wondered whether, if independence were to come within a few years, it might not be right for Bermuda to retain capital punishment. They might need it, he thought, (cf Jamaica, Bahamas) in a post-independent situation. We should not believe that, because the UK was against capital punishment, this would necessarily be right in Bermuda also. He himself (a convinced abolitionist) believed that Bermuda ought to go at this time for the abolition of capital punishment except for a closely defined range of cases of premeditated murder.
10.
Meanwhile, however, the British Government should abrogate the Creech-Jones doctrine (by Parliamentary Statement) and thus put themselves in a position, in each case, to advise The Queen to reprieve.
FCO support
11. I asked the Governor in what way we could now support him. Was there anything we should do vis-à-vis himself, or the Premier or the Opposition? He replied that he could at the moment think of nothing in particular (except, by implication, to keep quiet and let him get on quietly to restore the situation). He would
himself like to be summoned home for consultation within the next months or two
to get away from a slightly claustrophobic situation
(b) to discuss his policies
(c) to have a few days rest away from the island.
He suggests 5-11 February, during which he would spend one or two days in the Office.
12. He also thought, at an appropriate moment, some gesture should be made to Bermuda by, for example, inviting the Premier to visit London. I did not pursue this further nor go into the reasons for this suggestion.
13. Finally, the Governor naturally asked that we should in the next few weeks be particularly careful not only not to further undermine his own position, but to take any particular opportunity that might occur to strengthen it.
CONFIDENTIAL
Antay
(Antony Duff)
20 December, 1977.
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