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RECORD OF SIR P CRADOCK'S CALL ON SIR J COLES TO DISCUSS
REVISIONS TO THE FINAL CHAPTER OF HIS MEMOIRS ON CHINA/HONG
KONG.
1. Sir Percy Cradock called on Sir J Coles on 13 December. agreed in Sir Robin Butler's letter of 7 December to the PUS, Sir J Coles said that he wished to go through the amendments which the Government wished to see made to the revised final
chapter of Sir P Cradock's book, enclosed with his letter of
29 November to Sir Robin Butler. We would then send further advice to the Cabinet Secretary.
2.
Sir J Coles began by taking up some points from
As
Sir P Cradock's letter of 29 November. He confirmed that criticism of the Government's policy was not in itself objectionable. We had looked at the revised chapter using the same criteria as on the previous occasion, ie that we wished to remove revelations of past confidential negotiations which could inhibit our ability to conduct future negotiations with China, and criticism of current policy which would weaken our negotiating position in the future. In order to anticipate a claim from Sir P Cradock that the negotiations with China were now over, Sir J Coles explained the present position. We had proposed a further round of talks on electoral issues and had
received no reply. We could not exclude that talks would
on this or other subjects, and therefore had to protect the Government's ability to conduct such negotiations.
3. Sir J Coles then went through the points in the schedule enclosed with the PUS's letter of 6 December to Sir R Butler, laying particular emphasis on the first-priority items. He added as a general point that we objected to the assertion which occurred at a number of points in the final chapter (and
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