TNAG-0719-FCO40-917-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 114

Registry

No.

C

TURITY CLASSIFICATION

Top Secret.

Secret.

Confidential.

Restricted.

Unclassified.

PRIVACY MARKING

.......In Confidence

DRAFT

To:-

CONFIDENTI AL

Mr Cortazzi

Sir A Duff

PS/PUS

Type 1 +

From

JA B Stewart

Telephone No. Ext.

+

Department

DSRII

CC:

A

EXECUTIONS IN BERMUDA

1.

In his minute of 20 December to the PUS Sir A Duff has Mr Stratton 0.1 drawn attention

to failures in communication between the Sir Ian Sinclair

FCO and Sir Peter Ramsbotham in Bermuda over the execution Mr Rushford

of Messrs Burrows and Tacklyn in Bermuda on 5 December 1977.

Mr Stratton, who is now away on a tour of the Pacific, has asked me,

goort with My Puch fand and Maff to comment

Mr Duff (WIAD)

B.

с

on Sir A Duff's minute and, in particular, on the five points in his paragraph 3. My comments are as follows:

made

(a) e did not warn the Governor that the plan to abrogate the Creech-Jones doctrine and to grant reprieves to Burrows and Tacklyn had to be given up is unfortunatel

hef that the decision of Ministers in the meeting of

GEN 103 held on 13 October was not communicated to

Sir Peter Ramsbotham until my letter of 16 November The

who had lo an reasons for this are primarily that those officials most

concerned were not in London at the time. I myself was in Hong Kong from the middle

of Octoberal

•

Mr Cortazzi and Mr Stratton were also absent during this

period. Unfortunately, after the meeting of GEN 103, the Secretary of State decided "that the issue should be handled

with discretion and on a restricted basis within the Office"

which effectively meant that the Secretary of State dealt solely with Mr Murray, who had not been directly concerned with the Bermuda considerations. Nevertheless, Mr Murray included a passage in the draft of telegram Personal 33 of 20 October explaining that Ministers had decided not

to make a change in the practice concerning capital punishment in dependent territories but this passage was deleted by the Secretary of State himself on the grounds that "he does not think it proper to appear to put any pressure on the Governor to come to a particular conclusion":

1...