TNAG-0722-FCO40-920-Capital-punishment-in-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 21

USHFORD

V

CONFIDENTIAL

Q27i

Reference .......HKG..380/1......

Mr

Rushford

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT IN THE DEPENDENT OVERSEAS TERRITORIES

1.

Mr Arthur Watson, until recently Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands called on me this morning to discuss his letter of 13 July to the PUS (at 263 on file HKG 380/1 attached). I will be submitting this letter in due course to the PUS but in the meantime I should be grateful for your comments on one point raised by Mr Watson.

2. I explained that we had concluded that the only proper method of securing the abolition or suspension of the death penalty for murder in the DOTS. would be by means of legislation in the UK, but the Ministers had decided, for domestic political reasons, not to pursue this possibility for the time being. Mr Watson suggested that there might be another method of securing the same result which would be equally effective but might not give rise to the same political difficulties. His idea was that Governors should be given a Royal Instruction to commute all death sentences in their territories. Such an Instruction would be easy to present in view of the abolition of capital punishment in the UK; it could be qualified (eg by making it valid only until such time as the British Parliament had considered the matter); and it could if necessary be reversed. I said that a study of the various ways in which capital punishment might be abolished in the DOTS had been done earlier this year and Mr Watson's suggestion had not been among those considered. I therefore supposed that there would be constitutional objections. I also said that a change of policy on the subject, however introduced, would have to be announced and defended in Parliament, thus stimulating the topic which Ministers wished to avoid. I never- theless undertook to consult Legal Advisers and would be grateful for your comments.

debale

Hics. 386/1

- 4 OCT 1973

DESK OR

INDEX

3.51

ISTRY

ction Taken

PA

No

Bs

24 August 1978

BL

CODE 18 - 17

CONFIDENTIAL

RJT McLaren

Hong Kong and General Department

Р.Т.О.