TNAG-0722-FCO40-920-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 137

217

Mr Greg Lee

General Secretary

Labour Club

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

School of Oriental and African Studies

Malet Street

London WC1E 7HP

Dear for his

Mar

Lic

RECEIV

London SW1A 2AH

19 April 1978

Nbevor 20/4

TKC 386/

720. 51

20 APR 1978

DESK OFFICER INDEX

No

REGISTRY

Copy to

An Sullivan

then

ра

PA Action Taken See (248

-20/4

for futher letter

26 David Owen has asked me to reply to your letter of 4 April.

Dr Owen understands your concern to ensure that overseas students recognise that the Labour Party and the present Government are not preoccupied only with narrow nationalist issues. He has asked me to say that he is sorry if the executions in Bermuda last December should have made this task more difficult for you.

The question of capital punishment in the Dependent Overseas Territories is complex. As you say, the administration of justice in Bermuda is a matter for the Bermuda Government. In 1965, when the death penalty for murder was suspended in the United Kingdom, and again in 1970 when it was abolished, we invited all those Dependent Territories which still retained it to follow our example,. Several did so, but 7 territories, including Bermuda, declined and still retain the death penalty. As recently as 1975 the Bermuda House of Assembly debated a motion to abolish the death penalty for murder, but rejected it on a free vote by 25 votes to 9. This was the decision of a body democratically elected by the entire adult population of the territory, and it would be difficult for the British Government to take action that went against the will of the people concerned so unequivocally expressed.

At the end of your letter you suggested that, if we did not have the power to impose our polties in the remaining Dependent

It would be Territories, we should pull down the flag and leave. difficult to reconcile such action with our well known attitude towards decolonisation: that our actions should be governed entirely by the wishes of the people concerned. Where the majority of the people in a Dependent Territory express a wish for independence, we give them every help and encouragement to move towards it. But we do not force independence on those who, like Bermuda, believe they are not yet ready for it; though such territories are encouraged to assume responsibility for their own internal affairs.

Yours sincerey

Annişan

David Stoc