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14.
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The political arguments for doing nothing are thus very strong.
However, they leave open the question of how HMG can justify in
Parliament and elsewhere a different practice in Hong Kong and the
other dependencies. We are advised that there is no significant
constitutional difference between Hong Kong and the other
dependencies which would cover this. But there is a major
political difference.
Hong Kong does not have an elected legis-
lature. This in itself is one of the main reasons why there is
such strong parliamentary interest in questions affecting Hong Kong.
While it is impossible to gauge the future mood of the House on
a particular case, it is very likely that MPs would look differently
on the carrying out of a capital sentence in Hong Kong, and its
being carried out in territories where there are elected legis-
latures which have declined to abolish the death penalty for
murder and local ministers who strongly support it.
15. Ministers could thus justify the difference in practice on
the grounds that, as there is no elected legislature or government
in Hong Kong, the Secretary of State, notwithstanding local opinion,
felt it right to defer to the view as expressed in the latest
free vote in the Commons on the death penalty.
16. I attach a summary of this submission for the convenience of
Ministers.
22 October 1981
15lip
R D Clift
Hong Kong and General Department
сс
Mr Ure
Mr Rushford, Legal Advisers Mr Edwards, WIAD
CONFIDENTIAL
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