to reconsider the earlier proposals in view of the practical difficulties attending the Chinese compromise proposal and he would welcome the suggestion for a further Colonial Office/Foreign Office meeting to discuss our next step.
The
On the whole I think there would be a balance of advantage in not informing the Governor as proposed in paragraph 4 above until after the suggested discussion with the Foreign Office. urgency about informing the Governor is less great than it would have been if he were still considering his reply about the Chinese compromise proposal.
8.
(a)
(b)
(c)
Decisions appear to be required as follows:
whether we should accept the Law Officers'
advice and abandon all intetion of taking the case to the International Court
assuming this is the decision,whether, in informing the Governor of it we should quote fairly extensively from the Law Officers' opinion.
whether we should send the Ministry of
Defence a copy of the Law Officers' opinion, informing them at the same time of our decision to accept it.
(a) whether arrangements should be made for an
early meeting with Foreign Office
representatives to consider our next step, and in particular to consider whether there would not be advantage in pursuing one or other of the earlier proposals for a settlement rather than the Chinese
compromise proposal which at present holds the floor.
Viureen
26.6.48.
256. Min. of Defence
- SEACOS 854
·26-6-48
Having obtained the Law Officers' opinion we can only accept it. telegraphing will, I think, only be necessary to give the Governor the substance of the advice without the arguments. We should not say that it is the advice of the Law Officers, but we can say "H.M.G. he advised", which should suffice to indicate where the opinion comes from.
I see no reason why a copy of the opinion should not be sent to Ministry of Defence.
I agree that the Chinese compromise proposal has obvious objections, and the best kind of solution is one which would keep the public out of the area, so
/that