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or unable to protect their lives.
However such a right of
intervention is controversial and it is by no means generally
accepted that such a right exists under international law.
Furthermore, it is unlikely that the United Kingdom would
obtain much support in the UN for any action it had taken
without the permission of the local State. A decision that
British forces should intervene with anything less than the clear permission of the local State or, still more, where the
local State was opposed, should of course only be taken afbor careful consideration of all the legal, political and practical
issues involved.
3. Mr Judd can agree that the report should be amender 1.
make this explicit. Paragraph 7 already points out the riske
of recriminations afterwards if we had anything less than foll
permission from the host government, but it would be an improvos
ment to spell the more general point, described in this brief,
in paragraph 2 of the report.
27 January 1978
MR Morland
Maritime, Aviation and Environment.
Department
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