CONFIDENTIAL
Final
DRAFT LETTER FROM PUS TO SIR ROBIN BUTLER
Sir Robin Butler GCB CVO
Cabinet Office
X
You asked for dua advice on þîr Percy Cradock's letter of
20 July to you.
He is clearly concerned at the prospect that if he
publishes his book he will attract official and public
condemnation. The revised text of the chapters on the
airport negotiations and constitutional development is an improvement on the first version. It goes a good way
towards removing one of our concerns, that revelations
about previous confidential negotiations with the Chinese will make the latter less willing to negotiate on current
issues. He has also modified (though not eliminated) his criticism of HMG and the Governor, so the danger of the Chinese concluding that there are divided counsels within
the Government and that this weakness can be exploited is
reduced.
1
More
his text
tom discuss/ further, whe
we
From the point of view of this department we would
Melou's therefore think it worthwhile to accept his offer to
tho engage in a negotiation about the text, during which we
would seek to obtain a few further amendments. If you are content with this, course John Coles could offer to see
Linn
Percy Cradock as soon as possible for this purpose (unless
of course you prefer to handle the negotiations yourself).
CONFIDENTIAL