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with you and we agreed that, as the Secretary of State will not see the short brief you put to him today until the weekend we should look at the DTI suggestion again then but that, even then because of the possible amount of redrafting necessary in the light of Cabinet discussion, we might have to accept if things went seriously against us on Tuesday that posts would have very little notice; I have so informed the DTI.
6.
The telegrams that will be necessary will be:-
(i) a main telegram (with a very wide distribution);
(ii)
a supporting aide-mémoire to governments with an annex on details of the new import régime, particularly on licences;
(iii) supplementary paragraphs (or short telegrams) to
the main telegram to:-
a) Delhi
(b)
C
(f)
Go
h
Islamabad
Pretoria
Canada;
Australia and New Zealand
UKMIS Geneva
UKDEL ELC, and possibly posts in Community capitals
Washington (for oral action with the Americans) Dublin, but after the announcement in the House, given that certain details are still to be worked out with the Irish on the introduction of the new cotton textile tariff.
7. The draft brief and speech for the DTI Minister in the Debate on the Affirmative Resolution and the press notice on the changes were amended to bring them into line with the draft telegrams and aide-mémoire. It was agreed that in giving instructions to our posts we should probably tell them which of the paragraphs of the telegram they could use for dealing with local press enquiries; this would be for action after the DTI Minister had spoken in the House.
8. Finally, we may need to ensure that Mr Wood (who is in Cairo until 2 December) and Mr Royle (who will be in Malaysia or Singapore on the crucial day) are shown the basic telegrams. The only other complication at the moment is the visit of Mr Eban to Britain, but as he will leave on 1 December we may be able to avoid saying anything; we are in touch on this with
NED.
25 November 1971
Shak
ひ
HEJ Hale
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