CONFIDENTIAL
FI__ COPY
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
16 June 1993
Sir Robin Butler GCB CVO Cabinet Office
My dear Rain;
London SW1A 2AH
Sir David Gillmore KCMG
The Permanent Under Secretary of State
071 270 2150
Mr Ricketts, HKD
a (without other papers)
и
ort codes i
Mr Berman Mr Hum Samtals.
BS/PUS
1621
Sir Percy Cradock sent me a copy of his letter of 8 June to you about his memoirs. We had a word about this yesterday.
It is not altogether surprising that he is resisting our proposal that he either delay publication of his book until our negotiations with the Chinese are concluded, or alternatively excise the passages which relate to our continuing negotiations. But many of the arguments he uses are faulty. I do not think it would be right to let matters
rest there.
I therefore suggest that you should ask him to call (he says in his letter that he is willing to do so). Sir John Coles who is more expert than I in this subject, would be glad to attend if you would like that. I believe our objective should be to rebut his arguments and persuade him to accede to our request that he should not publish the passages in pages 198 to 219 of his manuscript until the negotiations with the Chinese are concluded.
If you agree to this course of action, we would be happy to supply a brief. We would also let the Governor of Hong Kong know of Sir Percy's reply to your letter and how we propose to pursue the matter. Meanwhile, I am checking on the point about our powers of sanction which we discussed on the telephone.
Yaus
Laind
aus end,
David Gillmore
CONFIDENTIAL