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LONG TERM STUDY
Amendments to OPDO (DR)(69)1
Ministry of Defence (Sowrey's letter of 21 January)
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The dangers of a "leak" that we were trying to reach, or had reached, an understanding with the Chinese on eventual withdrawal (paragraph 67 (iv) of the Report) are fully stated in paragraph 62 and do not need to be repeated. But the point made that, before embarking on this course, we should put in hand appropriate military planning for a total breakdown of law and order is a valid one and should be mentioned in paragraph 73.
But we do not consider that it should be tacked on to the fourth sentence of paragraph 73, the purpose of which was to air our doubts about reaching a satisfactory under- standing with the Chinese through the informal channels so far available to us. We propose instead that the third sentence should read: +
"It would have to be pursued with the utmost
secrecy and care over a long period; the risks of a leak about our intentions would be grave (paragraph 62 above) and before embarking on such a course some military contingency planning would be necessary. We could not
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