December 1993
Sir Robin Butler GCB CVO
Cabinet Office
70 Whitehall
London SW1A 2AS
SIR PERCY CRADOCK'S MEMOIRS
Sir Percy Cradock has sent me a copy of his letter of 29 November to you enclosing the revised final chapter of his book on Hong Kong for clearance.
We have looked carefully at this text. Using the same criteria as we applied in considering his earlier text, we have identified a number of points at which Sir P Cradock attributes policy or motives to HMG which would be damaging in any continuing negotiations with China over Hong Kong. We accepted in dealing with his earlier text that we should not seek to expunge all criticism of HMG's policy. But we believe that we should not leave unchallenged a number of the points in his revised version.
As on the last occasion, I propose that John Coles should ask Sir P Cradock to call and should put to him our proposed revisions. I enclose a schedule showing these. I suggest that John Coles should concentrate on securing the deletion of the first priority points. We should not allow Sir P Cradock to get off on the technicality that since our talks with China over electoral arrangements seem to have broken down, that frees him from any duty to avoid endangering future negotiations with China over Hong Kong.
DAVID GILLMORE
It.butler4.PETER
JEB