THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT
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Printed for the Cabinet. December 1955
SECRET
C.P. (55) 208
19th December, 1955
CABINET
Copy No. 56
SUBMISSION OF BUSINESS TO CABINET
NOTE BY THE PRIME MINISTER
On certain occasions recently a decision taken without reference to the Cabinet or a Cabinet Committee has had to be reconsidered soon after it has been made public because of the weight of criticism which it has provoked. This is damaging to the Government's credit, and we must do all we can to avoid it. I hope, therefore, that Departmental Ministers will remember that, while the reaction to any particular decision cannot always be forecast with certainty, this is a matter in which they can often be helped by the collective wisdom of their colleagues.
2. Apart from the major issues of policy, Departmental Ministers should not hesitate to bring to the Cabinet, or to the appropriate Cabinet Committee, any questions which are likely to occasion public controversy or criticism or may need to be carefully explained to the Government's supporters in Parliament.
3. If a Minister is in doubt about this, he can always seek my view or that of the Chairman of the appropriate Cabinet Committee-preferably by sending a minute in a form in which it could be circulated to other Ministers.
10 Downing Street, S.W. 1,
16th December, 1955.
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