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of mitigating the economic consequences of our withdrawal since remedial measures are essentially a matter of long-term planning. Once we have
adopted a planning date for our own purposes it will be impossible to prevent it leaking sooner or later; but to disclose a date of 1975-76 in the initial round would give an unnecessary appearance of rigid pre- conceptions and would thus make our task of obtaining acquiescence much more difficult. The timing of this disclosure should in our view be
further considered in the light of the initial round of discussions.
7. In the consultations with Australia and New Zealand, Malaysia and
Singapore we should make it clear that we envisaged follow-up discussions
between officials with perhaps further Ministerial discussions before final
decisions are taken in the middle of the year. We shall also at that
stage, or shortly thereafter, have to inform Thailand, the Philippines and Japan of our proposals in broad terms.
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