St C Duncan Esq
Consular Department
FCO
CONFIDENTIAL
entho
OLSA
W62
BRITISH EMBASSY
BANGKOK
20 October, 1978
Cari vinly
Dear Duncan,
RITA NIGHTINGALE -.
Jed
1.
On 17 October, which happened to be my birthday, I found myself with some surprise being entertained privately to luncheon by Professor Sanya (President of the Privy Council and former Prime Minister). The only others present were Charunphan (Privy Councillor and former Prime Minister), Thawisan (Principal Private Secretary to HM the King) and Phan (the Thai Ambassador to London who is at present on a.short visit here). The conversation was relaxed and wide ranging. At an appropriate moment the lights went out, a cake appeared happily with an inappropriate number of candles - and the hotel guitar trio sang "Happy Birthday".
•
2.
Towards the end of the meal, Phan mentioned the Nightingale case and his preoccupation with it. He said that he had received over-100 letters at the Royal Thai Embassy. So long as the case had been sub "judice his replies had been couched in a low key, but when Miss Nightingale finally dropped her appeal to the Supreme Court he had geared himself to adopt a harder line. However, the appearance of articles and editorials sympathetic to the Thai position particularly those in the Guardian and Daily Telegraph * had persuaded him against doing so. Low. key was therefore still
the order of the day, despite the provocations of the Portia Trust and others... bé cele
3.
!
Le Duran
**
It was clear. from the ensuing conversation that both Phan and Thawisan (they are brothers-in-law) were very well acquainted - with the case. Sanya, who is a former President of the Supreme : Court, and Charunphan were both aware of it, but professed ignor- ance of the details. This gave me the opportunity to go over the
· salient points of the case as we saw them, and to say that we had also tried to keep it in low key. Miss Nightingale's decision to withdraw the appeal to the Supreme Court had been entirely her own, though we recognised that the decision not to go on to the end. : might be interpreted by some as a tacit admission of guilt (at
this Sanya nodded quietly). However, I added, Miss Nightingale had continued to proclaim her innocence; and had given as her reason the fact that she had had enough of court appearances: and. that she preferred to take herï chance on amnesties. Given that she had already spent some 18 months in detention, this was understandable.
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CONFIDENTIAL
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