TNAG-0721-FCO40-919-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 33

LABOUR PARTY INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE MEETING, 7 MARCH

1. The following are the main points discussed.

CYPRUS:

2.

MEETING WITH DR OWEN

The Committee were informed that the Secretary of State has agreed to meet them at 10.00 am on Tuesday 14 March. After- wards, the Committee would hold its planned session on the future relations of the Labour Party with Communist Parties. A Secretariat paper was in preparation. One specific issue which the meeting would have to consider was an invitation which had been received from the Spanish Communist Party for a Labour Party representative to attend its forthcoming congress.

RESOLUTIONS

3.

I attach a list of resolutions. The resolution on Crown Colonies and Dependencies, taken in conjunction with the Secretary of State's letter of 16 February to the West Derbyshire CLP, was deferred. Clarification would be sought about Dr Owen's use of the phrase "if that is Parliament's wish" in the second paragraph of the letter; it was not clear to the Committee whether Dr Owen was suggesting that the initiative for a change of policy regarding capital punishment in the dependent territories lay with the Secretary of State or with Parliament.

4.

The resolution on the "neutron bomb" was also deferred on the advice of the Chaiman, Mr Mikardo, who said that it was premature for the Party to pronounce on this subject since the Government's own line was not yet clear.

5. On Chile, it was agreed (with respect to the Toxteth resolution) that the General Secretary of the Labour Party should take

an early opportunity of mentioning this matter to Mr Merlyn Rees and I was asked to find out as much information as I could about the Chilean sailor's application for political assylum in this country.

IRAN:

INVITATION FROM CAMPAIGN AGAINST REPRESSION IN IRAN

6. A letter was read from the British Committee of the Campaign inviting the Labour Party to send a representative to a symposium on repression in Iran jointly sponsored by the Campaign's Committees in Britain, Belgium, France and Italy to be held in Brussels on 5/6 May 1978. It was agreed that Mr Ian Mikardo MP should represent the Labour Party.

SOCIALIST INTERNATIONAL BUREAU MEETING, HAMBURG, 9/10 FEBRUARY

The

7. The Secretary, Ms Jenny Little, gave an oral report. meeting had been the best attended ever, with five Prime Ministers and two other party leaders attending. The Prime Minister of Jamaica, Mr Michael Manley, had attended for the first time and his speech on North/South had been universally acclaimed as the

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