30 June 1993
Sir Robin Butler GCB CVO Cabinet Office
CONFIDENTIAL
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SWIA 2AH
Sir David Gillmore KCMG
The Permanent Under Secretary of State
My dear Robin,
I wrote to you on 16 June about Sir Percy Cradock's reply to your letter on his memoirs. We had a word about this and agreed that you should ask Sir Percy to call so that you could have one more go at convincing him not to publish the passages in pages 198 to 219 in his manuscript until our negotiations with the Chinese are concluded.
I understand that a meeting has now been fixed on 2 July. John Coles will, as agreed, attend. I enclose a speaking note. John Coles can elaborate on this as necessary. We have taken advice from our Legal Advisers about what powers of sanction we have. I enclose a copy of their views. The short answer is that we are in practice in the business of persuasion rather than sanction.
CONFIDENTIAL
Yaus
eur
David Gillmore