CONFIDENTIAL
SIR P CRADOCK'S CALL ON THE CABINET SECRETARY AND SIR J COLES:
2 JULY 1993
Line to Take
-
Grateful to you for setting out your views so fully in your
letter of 8 June. Note that you do not accept our contention
that pages 198 - 219 of your manuscript could be damaging to our position in our current negotiations with the Chinese.
But we
still have serious concerns: wanted to explain these to you
more fully.
We are not seeking to prevent you from making public your
views. You have already made them abundantly clear in newspaper
and television interviews. But we see an important difference
between that and the detailed account in your manuscript of
confidential negotiations conducted in the recent past when you
held a very senior and sensitive post, on issues which are still
under discussion with the Chinese side.
The real danger we see is that the Chinese side will assume,
despite the fact that you no longer hold an official post, that you represent a strand of thinking within the Government, that our counsels are divided, and that if they hold out they will
extract concessions from us. Whatever you or we say they may
well believe that as recent foreign policy adviser to the
Prime Minister you have means of bringing your influence to
bear.
cradock. JM, JRB
CONFIDENTIAL