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Mr Stuart, HKIOD
Mr de Courcy Ireland, SWPD
Mr Wright, MED
Mr Goodison, SEED
Mr Thomas, SWED
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Mr Carless, LAD
Mr Cox, WIAD
Mr Preston, Caribbean Dept.
Mr Chalmers, SAD
Mr Ewans, EAD
Mr Squire, SEAD
cc Private Secretary
PS/Mr Hattersley
PS/PUS
Sir G Arthur
Sir J Killick
Mr Wilford
Mr Weir
Mr Tickell, WOD
DEFENCE REVIEW: NON-NATO COMMITMENTS
1. Ministers' intentions about a Parliamentary statement and consultations are now becoming clearer. As you will see from the attached copy of a minute by the Prime Minister, it may need to go into greater detail about some of our non-NATO commitments than the Secretary of State had envisaged in his minute of 7 November. In these cases we would notify the Governments con- cerned in advance of our Defence Review intentions and what we intended to say in the statement. This would not preclude on- going consultations after the statement where necessary, but if we could get broad acceptance of our intentions from the Govern- ments concerned before 3 December, so much the better.
2. We ought to be ready to send messages to Governments any time after the Cabinet meeting on 20 November. I have been asked to put preparatory work in hand. We cannot take this very far until we know the initial results of our Defence Review consultations with the Americans, which we should do on Thursday. Nor is it clear to what extent the Secretary of State accepts the Prime Minister's view that we should give details of our proposed with- drawals and reductions. I understand that when he discussed this with the Prime Minister on 8 November he said he would need to consult his officials about this. I hope to get further guidance from the Private Secretary on his return from Brussels this
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/afternoon.