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level representations at some stage. We should now leave it to the Embassy to find a suitable informal occasion for speaking to the
Thais.
12.
In view of the delicacy of the matter we recommend that, instead of writing, Dr Owen should invite Mrs Castle to meet him on her own
and that she should be told that
i) matters have moved on to a point where it is now up to us to
see whether anything can be done at the diplomatic level to Support suggest a plea for a Royal Pardon (Mr David Lyman's letter endorses this view);
ii) we must therefore exercise our own control over developments
and to this end would much prefer to continue to work directly with Mr Lyman (senior) in Bangkok and not through Mr Hallmark. It makes obvious sense that the main points of contact shouldbe there since both the Consulate and lawyers are in regular comm- unication with Miss Nightingale herself;
iii) the attached memorandum deals with points in Mr David Hallmark' 'S
letter and memo of 30 June and his letter of 6 July to Mrs Castle. It is passed to her on Privy Councillor terms;
iv) the memorandum shows that we have already pursued our inquiries
with the Hong Kong authorities a very long way and in fact it covers some of the questions in the new questionnaire.
We are
not however persuaded that to take the mattor further on the banin of the questionnaire would produce any additional information rolovunt to Mino Nightingalo's own nitunbion and wo age mino doubtful whether this is the right way to proceed;
v)we will however bear in mind the points made in the questionnaire
in the further consideration we shall be giving to the case.
vi) Mrs Castle's letter attributes to Mr David Lyman views "on how he
believes we can secure Rita's release". In his discussions with
us he did not indicate that he possessed a magic formula and it would be wrong to pin too many hopes on a diplomatic approach;
vii) Mrs Castle will know, from what the Private Secretary told her in
Blackpool, that the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs have warned us off petitioning for a Royal Pardon at this stage. Everyone (including Rita Nightingale herself) is agreed that further
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