TNAG-0722-FCO40-920-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 116

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нка

HKG 386/

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY NO. 51

28 APR 1978

DESK OFFICER

INDEX

Yes

PA

الميلي

REGISTRY

Action Taken

Xxx

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

(A9

London SW1A 2AH

27 April 1978

"

Thank you for your letter of 29 March about the resolution from

the West Derbyshire Constituency Labour Party on capital punishment

in the Dependent Territories.

It remains the Government's intention to seek to find out Parliament's

views on this subject. But we have not yet decided when and how it

would be best to do this. The question of whether or not Dependent Territories should be allowed to retain capital punishment is one which

raises complex constitutional issues. In most of those territories where

it is still retained, the decision to keep it was taken by democratically elected local governments. It will not be easy therefore for us to make

any change that is so evidently contrary to the freely expressed will of

the local populations in the territories concerned: as I said in my

previous letter, successive British Governments have taken the view

that they should respect the decisions of local governments in what is

essentially an internal matter.

Any proposal to change this policy would be bound to provoke some

degree of controversy. There is a risk that this would start a debate

on the wider issue of capital punishment in general. This is a sensitive

subject, and we have concluded that it would be unwise to raise it at

the present moment. However, we do recognise that there may need to be

a change in the policy towards capital punishment in the Dependent

Territories, and we shall be reconsidering the whole question at an

appropriate time.

eve

灯

Ms Jenny Little

(DAVID OWEN)