UNCLASSIFIED
DSR 11 (Revised Sept 85)
DRAFT: minute/letter/teleletter/despatch/note
FROM:
TYPE: Draft/Final 1 +
Reference
Prime Minister
DEPARTMENT:
TEL. NO:
Your Reference
BUILDING:
ROOM NO:
The Honourable W B McLeay, MP
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
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Confidential
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PRIVACY MARKING
CAVEAT
In Confidence
Canberra
SUBJECT:
When we met on 13 April you raised with me the
question of the permanent loan to Australia of one
of the original copies of the Commonwealth of
Australia Constitution Act.
Enclosures flag(s)
to me on
As you know, this request has been put to
several occasions in the past by Prime Minister
Hawke. I have, however, looked at it again and
given it fresh and careful thought. I would like
to be able to grant the request in the spirit of
the deep and unique friendship which exists
between the peoples of Britain and Australia,
particularly in this Bicentenary year; but I am
afraid that our further consideration of the
question has led us back again to the same
conclusion that we have reached in the past. I do
not see how the British Government could make an
exception to the rule of conserving our own
British records intact by agreeing to the
permanent loan in Australia of either the copy
held by Parliament as part of its own record of
its own proceedings or of the copy held by the