In spite, however, of these considerations, we maintain that the
Imperial Government must use the greatest possible discretion, and should only interfere with executive action in a self-governing Colony with the most extreme re- luctance. They should never intervene on the merits of a particular case, but only on grounds of high Imperial policy. We must never forget that when we make com- munities and individuals free to do right, we cannot also avoid making them free to do wrong. It is the essence of freedom to bestow a choice. Without such choice there is no freedom. When we have parted with our responsibility, the responsibility of wrongly taking life belongs to the Colonial Government, and must not be shifted lightly from their shoulders. The only way of making them exercise that responsibility properly is to make it absolute, and to force them to realise that if wrong is done, it will be their wrong and not another's. But though we must not interfere with their responsibility in a matter of justice between man and man, we may, as we have said, interfere with it in very exceptional
circumstances as regards matters of high those in- volving our trusteeship for the Empire as a whole. In the present case we do not feel convinced that the very exceptional circumstances have arisen. At any rate, the onus is on the Home Government to show that they have. If not, the more completely and more quickly they admit an error of judgment the better.
