TNAG-2284-FCO40-3285-Capital-punishment-in-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 132

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CONFIDENTIAL

FROM: DATE:

RS GORHAM, WIAD

18 FEBRUARY 1991

A

MR BEAMI SH

PS/MR LENNOX-BOYD

CARIBBEAN DEPENDENT TERRITORIES: PUNISHMENT

•

ABOLITION OF CAPITAL

1. I submit a draft telegram to follow up last week's decision.

2. You will have seen Mr Chamberlain's minute of 15 February explaining why the Order as drafted in December does not have to be amended to retain treason as a capital offence. Our Order abolishes capital punishment for the crime of murder, and does not go beyond that to embrace other offences which remain on the UK Statute Book.

3. The meeting, chaired by Mr Chamberlain, of DT Attorneys General, takes place on Wednesday and Thursday 20 and 21 February. Capital punishment is not on the agenda, but it would be disingenuous of Mr Chamberlain not to refer to the question

the question on the margins of the meeting. I propose therefore that he should be

instructed to say that Ministers have considered the question of abolition and that the outcome of their deliberations will be conveyed as soon as possible to DT governments. Mr Chamberlain might however indicate that way the wind is blowing (he tells me that the AGs all support abolition) while preserving the formal line that Governors will be instructed to start consultations from the beginning of March.

Rita Gab

RS Gorham

CONFIDENTIAL

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