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Напьо, сев Етвенни
12th September, 1986
Thank you for your letter of 10th September, which I have now had the opportunity of discussing with the Chairman and senior Members of the Defence Committee.
The Committee is very sorry to hear that your Government believes that a misunderstanding has arisen, particularly in view of the terms of Mr Speed's letter of 16th April 1986 to Secretary Lehman; of the meeting between Mr Speed and the Secretary at the time of the SEA LINK symposium in June of this year (it will be recalled that Mr Speed visited Washington at that time expressly to discuss with Secretary Lehman details of the planned tour); and of the terms of Sir Humphrey Atkins's letter of 9 July to Secretary Lehman.
On the matter of access to Diego Garcia, mentioned in paragraphs 4, 5, and 6 of your letter, your Government will be aware that the formal approval of Her Majesty's Government for the Committee to make an official visit to the Island was contained in a letter from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of 2nd July 1986, which was sent by Fax and by airmail to Secretary Lehman's office as well as being copied to you.
Under cover of a letter of 11 July from the Assistant Clerk to the Committee, Mr Robin James, we also sent to Captain Joseph Prueher, Secretary Lehman's Executive Assistant, a copy of the Committee's provisional programme for the tour, which had been revised on the basis of Mr Speed's meeting with Secretary Lehman. A copy of this programme was forwarded to you on 15 July.
I will be discussing further with the Committee how we might now best proceed, and will be in touch with you again shortly.
Since the Committee's understanding of how matters stood was the result of personal correspondence and meetings with Secretary Lehman, I imagine that the Secretary will be writing in the very near future to Sir Humphrey Atkins or to Mr Speed.
RR
Robert Rogers
Clerk to the Committee