CONFIDENTIAL
THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Maybe he is
8. This now seems wide open. Everyone is much struck by the recent lacklustre performance by the Vice President. saving up his fire until after the Party Convention in August. But many doubt whether he has the fire at all. Mr Dukakis, meanwhile, is quietly building up his reputation, a phenomenon now reflected in the opinion polls. I very much agree with the assessment in Mr Boyd's minute of 19 May that a President Dukakis could throw up some pretty tricky problems for us (South Africa, Ireland, burden-sharing, North/South).
WASHINGTON CONFERENCE OF CONSULS GENERAL
9.
:
I was
You will no doubt get a full report of this in due course from the post. For my part, I thought this an extremely useful meeting, indeed obviously essential once a year at a minimum in order to coordinate the diplomatic/commercial/economic/consular effort in the United States across the country as a whole. struck by two things. First, the great professionalism of Mr Mellon and his New York staff, as well as the energy and sense of purpose of the Consuls General. Second, the absolutely vast range of subject matter with which Washington, New York and the Consulates General have to deal. Our operations in the United States are, in effect, a mini-Whitehall. The task of coordinating and focussing
the effort is a considerable one. I must say that I found the
It ought to be whole exercise very impressive indeed.
a proud feather in our diplomatic hat. Certainly it receives a good deal of praise from a wide variety of sources: businessmen, Parliamentary committees on visits, as well as the general public. As always, a large amount of time in the Consulates General is devoted to Ireland and the McBride legislation.
D H Gillmore
CONFIDENTIAL
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