CONFIDENTIAL
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
hu Rapsens
HKK. 06tes
REAL
0:
Telephone 01-233 3078DEK
3
B M Norbury Esq Head of DS 11
Ministry of Defence
Main Building
Whitehall
London SW1A 2HB
дел
Der brion
BRUNEI
اگی
Your reférence
Our reference
Date
D/DS11/6/5/4
FAR 020/1
27 February 1978
aken
1
1. Thank you for your letter (D/DS11/6/5/4) of 16 February, about which we have spoken on the telephone. I understand the reason for the Army Department's anxiety to which you drew attention.
2.
As you know, the Sultan's appeal has now gone to the Palace, together with advice in handling it in the sense of Dr Owen's minute (PM/78/7) of 7 February addressed to the Prime Minister. When The Queen's pleasure is known, and if She approved the advice tendered to Her, we shall inform the Sultan of this by telegram. The Queen's reply signed by Her will be forwarded subsequently to Brunei by bag. This will be the authentic copy of Her communication, and it will therefore be on receipt of this that the seven-day grace period will be held to begin, that was referred to in FCO telegram no.219 (77) to Brunei.
3. The Sultan will, therefore, have an amount of warning time, between the receipt of the telegram and the letter, during which he will doubtless consider the timing of his next move. We already know from Colonel Roberts that much thought to the matter has been given, and that the Bruneis are likely to respond well within the seven-day period with a proposal for further talks. I would anticipate our accepting the proposal and that (perhaps not initially) the Bruneis may be prepared, for the first time, to give serious consideration to the terms we have offered. My relatively sanguine views are generally shared here.
4. We have, however, given some consideration to the situation that would arise in the event of a breakdown. We would be prepared, for example, to have an inspired Parliamentary Question in tems like the following:-
"To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will make a statement on the outcome of negotiations with the Government of Brunei."
We would, of course, consult the Ministry of Defence when preparing the draft Answer. We have also prepared some background for use in
/briefing