↑
· 3 -
Council to abolish capital punishment in any of the other terri- tories that seemed likely to remain a British responsibility for any length of time. This procedure would also allow us to treat Hong Kong separately, if it seemed appropriate to do so in the circumstances then prevailing.
9. If Ministers are not prepared to accept the admittedly anoma- lous course of letting sleeping dogs lie, the legal and constitu- tional objections referred to in the memorandum and the reluctance of a number of Governors demonstrably to bend their exercise of the prerogative of mercy to UK policy considerations might be avoided by a fall-back solution. This would be to ask Governors to consider recommending to legislatures a suspension of the death penalty for, say, five years. This could be represented as an experimental device (with the tacit hope on HMG's part that it would lead through habit to voluntary full abolition). Even this, however, would meet strong opposition, especially in Hong Kong, Bermuda and Belize and would almost certainly require direct inter- vention by British Ministers with a number of local governments.
10. The department's Legal Adviser has been consulted in the pre- paration of this submission and of the accompanying memorandum.
29 January 1980
Brist
R D Clift
Hong Kong and General Department
cc: Mr Duff, WIAD
Mr Payne, MCD
I recognise that the Hong Kong argument is very strong. But if, for this and other reasons, it were decided not to take the honourable course of introducing legislation in Parliament, I still have reservations about "discreetly encouraging Governors to avoid executions as far as possible". This would violate the principle
(see paragraph
CONFIDENTIAL
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.