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intentions about commitments which were not mentioned in the statement. They believe it would be difficult for Ministers to avoid giving in answer to such enquiries the same amount of information about these commitments as was given about commitments mentioned in the statement. They believe that this process would be accelerated by probable leaks from the Governments concerned.
3.
They thus have, broadly speaking, an all or nothing approach, though I said that we would not necessarily exclude a selective one. I made it clear that our own position was the subject of further consultation with the Secretary of State, but thought it useful to discuss with the MOD very briefly the kind of thing which might if necessary be said in a statement. Both MOD and I thought that the statement should not go beyond what the MOD had included in a draft which they had prepared at an earlier stage when it was also thought that details would have to be given. a copy of the relevant extracts a toutes fins utiles.) however that ideally we should say something rather less than this about most of these commitments. They asked how we foresaw timing of any messages. I said that it looked as though we should want to get messages off to Governments as soon as we could after the Cabinet meeting on 20 July if the statement was to reveal our intentions in any detail.
(I attach
We agreed
4. It was left that I would let them know as soon as I had any firmer indication of the line which we were likely to advise the Secretary of State to take in Cabinet.
Teddy Jacka
JE Jackson Defence Dept.
12 November 1974
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