TNAG-0719-FCO40-917-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 99

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1. In his minute of 20 December to the PUS Sir A Duff has drawn

attention to failures in communication between the FCO and Sir 386 Peter Ramsbotham in Bermuda over the execution of Messrs Burrows 1977

and Tacklyn in Bermuda on December 1977. Mr Stratton, who is now away on a tour of the Pacific, has asked me to comment on Sir A Duff's minute and, in particular, on the five points made in his paragraph 3. My comments are as follows:

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(a) "We 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". It is unfortunately true 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 reasons for this are primarily that those officials

I who had been most concerned were not in London at the time. myself was in Hong Kong from the middle of October and 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";

(b) "We did not give the Governor a sight of the parliamentary A member of WIAD asked statement of 5 December before it was made". the Resident Clerk to send the draft to the Governor after it had been completed late on Sunday, 4 December but, unfortunately, Bermuda's radio had closed down for the night and no action was taken

CONFIDENTIAL

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