butler11.6/LET
CONFIDENTIAL
June 1993
Sir Robin Butler GCB CVO
Secretary of the Cabinet
and Head of the Home Civil Service Cabinet Office
70 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2AS
Sir Percy Cradock sent me a copy of his letter of 8 June to you
about his memoirs.
I am not surprised that Sir Percy Cradock is resisting our
proposal that he either delay publication of his book until our
negotiations with the Chinese are concluded, probably by early
1995, or alternatively excise the passages which relate to our
continuing negotiations with the Chinese. But I think that we
should make one further effort to dissuade him, and there are
in any case some points in his letter which we should take up.
I propose that you reply to Sir Percy Cradock on the following
lines.
First, we
we are not seeking to prevent him from making public his views on Government policy. He has already made them abundantly clear. But we see an important difference between
that and the detailed account in his book of confidential
negotiations conducted in the recent past when he held a very senior and sensitive post, on issues which are still under
discussion with the Chinese side. We see a real risk that
publication of such an account before these negotiations are
concluded could weaken the Government's negotiating position.
It could, in particular, encourage the Chinese in their belief
that Sir P Cradock represents a strand of thinking within the
Government, that our counsels are therefore divided, and that
if they hold out they will extract concessions from us.
CONFIDENTIAL