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CONFIDENTIAL
CW Squire Esq MVO
Head, South East Asia Department
FCO
BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION
CANBERRA
9 August 1974
237
Dear Squire,
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, HONG KONG
งา
1. Thank you for sending us a copy of your minute of 25 July about the apology by Edwards of Australia House for the leak of the Australian telegram from Saigon. I spoke on 6 August with Roy Peachey,
183) Assistant Secretary in the Defence Division of the Department of Foreign
190
Affairs, on this subject, along the lines of Canberra telegram No 702 of 1 August to FCO para 3, as agreed by FCO telegram No 610 of 2 August to Canberra (both repeated to Hong Kong and Saigon).
Peachey said he was not personally involved in this matter but would make enquiries and let me know what action the Department had taken to investigate the leak.
3.
Robert Whitty, the DFA Press Officer, who had signed the letter to the "Nation Review" reported in para 1 of Canberra telegram No 702, rang me on 7 August and told me that the Secretary of the Department had ordered a brief enquiry inside the DFA, as a result of which Mr Renouf was completely satisfied that the leak did not come from the DFA. Off the record Mr Whitty said the Department was pretty sure the
He told me that leak came from a member of Dr Cairns's personal staff. both Mr Whitlam and Senator Willesee were very concerned about the leak and Senator Willesee had spoken to Dr Cairns on the subject. Dr Cairng is aware that the Australians have had to apologise both in London and Saigon and Whitty felt that Dr Cairns himself is now more aware of the need to protect sensitive material. The DFA itself is trying to restrict · the circulation of such material but, as Whitty pointed out, it is difficult to deny it to a Minister who demands access.
4.
This leakage of a diplomatic telegram is not the first of its kind in Canberra. Top Secret telegrams from the Prime Minister to the Australian Embassy in Washington sent in late 1972 and early 1973 were leaked to the Press in January 1974. There is little doubt that all these leaks have come from Ministers' Private Offices, probably from
The DFA has tightened political appointees rather than civil servants.
its control of telegram distribution considerably in recent months and it will no doubt turn the screw a bit tighter following this current leak. Whether it will succeed in giving telegrams the distribution they need and at the same time prevent access by certain political appointees in private offices, is difficult to judge. I can only remark that this is the first leak of a diplomatic telegram since January this year.
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