TNAG-0722-FCO40-920-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 18

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CONFIDENTIAL

HKG.380/1

RECEIVEN

-7 SEP 1978

GISK OFF.

Mr Stra

stration PS/Pys

INDEX

PA

223

10. 51

Mr WeLaren

PUS has written a sunt ackn. It o

CISTRY [Action Taker:

Mr. Watson.

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Afzal nf

7/9

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE DEPENDENT OVERSEAS TERRITORIES (DOTS)

1. On 4 April the PUS wrote to Governors of those Dependent Territories which still retained capital punishment advising them that Ministers had decided to defer any decision on whether or not to abrogate the "Creech-Jones doctrine" or to take legis- lative action to abolish capital punishment in the DOT. The PUS may wish to see a reply to this letter from Mr Arthur Watson, lately Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands.

2. Mr Watson's letter was written on 13 July but did not arrive in the Office until 3 August, after the PUS's departure on leave and after Mr Watson himself had left Grand Turk at the conclusion of his Governorship. The Assistant Private Secretary to the PUS accordingly suggested that the best way of answering Mr Watson's letter might be for the Department to discuss it with him when he was in London.

3. Mr Watson came into the Office last week and I spent an hour with him. We went over the ground covered in his letter at some length. Mr Watson expanded on the difficulties faced by Governors of small islands when called upon to decide whether or not con- demed prisoners should be reprieved. In his view, a Governor in this position was bound to lose out whatever decision he took. If he decided that the law should take its course he would be unpopular in London because there would then be an appeal to The Queen and the problem would be transferred to the Secretary of State; if he decided to reprieve he would face criticism in his own territory. Indeed, where a Governor reprieved against the advice of his Mercy Committee, and in the face of strong local feeling that the condemed man should be executed, his usefulness as Governor had to all intents and purposes come to an end. The answer was to take action to abolish capital punishment in the Dependent Territories where it was retained. Such a step might be resented in some territories but it would be accepted.

4.

I said that Ministers of the present government found the present situation highly unsatisfactory and there was no doubt that they wanted to change it. But there were constitutional and legal difficulties and, perhaps more important, capital punish- ment was a very sensitive issue in domestic political terms. Hence the postponement of a decision. I explained to Mr Watson in confi- dence the line which the Secretary of State had taken in corres- pondence with the International Secretary of the Labour Party (his Flag C26letter of 27 April). In this connection the PUS may wish to see Flag Dthe Secretary of State's comments on Ms Little's reply to that Flag E

These have now been passed on to Ms Little by Lord Goronwy-Roberts.

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letter.

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CONFIDENTIAL

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