TNAG-0722-FCO40-920-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 17

M.P. letter, Double spacing,

4 spaces between

paragraphs. Flag references.

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Registry No.

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To:

DRAFT TO M.P.

Geoffrey Edge MP

House of Commons

Type 1 +

From

Mr Rowlands

Telephone No. & Ext.

Department

Consular

Thank you for your letter of 21 August on capital punishment in the Dependent Overseas Territories. I am sorry that we did not manage to have a word

about the subject before the Recess.

The question of whether or not dependent terri- tories should be allowed to retain capital punishment is one which raises complex consti- tutional issues. In most of those territories

where it is retained, the decision to keep it has been taken by democratically elected local

would governments and it will not be easy therefore for us to make any change that would be so evidently contrary to the freely expressed will of the local people in the territories concerned☛ Successive British Governments have taken the

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

internal matter.

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Sove

But any

However, the Government do recognize that there

cherme may need to be change in the policy

in the policy on capital punishment in the Dependent Territories, and it

remains our intention to seek to find out

Parliament's views on the subject.

proposal to change the present policy would be bound to provoke some degree of Controversy, and there is a real 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 until we have a clear majority in the House of Commons.