TNAG-0721-FCO40-919-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 143

this session. We could legislate quickly by Order in Council in respect of four territories (the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands and Hong Kong) but this is not possible for the other three (Bermuda, Belize and Montserrat) and our objective must be comprehensive. A further difficulty concerns Hong Kong where, since 1973, the Governor has managed to maintain a policy by which all capital sentences are automatically commuted. He estimates that legislation in the British Parliament would cause severe local reactions among the Chinese population who believe strongly that the death penalty should be retained as part of the law in Hong Kong.

5. We need to enable the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary, if

he wishes, to override Governors and their Advisory Committees in cases where they have decided that the law should take its course. I believe that this should be done by a Motion in Parliament on a

free vote calling upon the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary in effect to abandon the Creech-Jones doctrine, accordingly permitting

him to take account of all the relevant circumstances in offering

advice to The Queen on the exercise of the Prerogative of Mercy. I

have taken into account the consideration that it could be deemed

improper to use the Royal Prerogative of Mercy in each and every case in the dependent territories as a means of abolishing the death penalty in those territories while the death penalty remains on the

statute book. In advising The Queen, the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary would, however, be able to consider the relevant

circumstances in each particular case and I would say to the House that he could consider the view of the House and make a judgement, for example, as in the Bermuda case, the likelihood of racial

人

rioting. The Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary would become an

additional reviewing authority above the Governors of the various

territories to whom the Prerogative of Mercy has been devolved.

6. The position in the Dependent Territories to which this memorandum

relates is different from that obtaining in the West Indies Associated States (Antigua, Dominica, St Kitts Nevis - Anguilla, St Lucia and St Vincent). In these states it is, in accordance with constitutional principle, for the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary to advise The Queen what action She should take if a petition for

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