PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
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That we should make this case on general political grounds and seek to avoid being drawn into detailed textual analysis. But if Sir P Cradock responds by insisting on specific examples, I believe that we could point to three in particular (specified in the Annex).
As regards handling the Governor, I am confident that the Governor's reaction will be explosive when he hears Sir P Cradock is intending to publish his memoirs including comment on current issues. I think it very likely that he will press for Ministers to do everything possible to suppress publication. Having discussed the point with the Legal Advisers concerned, I do not myself believe that any legal remedy is likely to be appropriate. But we need to present this conclusion to the Governor in a controlled way, and guide him to realistic conclusions, while demonstrating that we are alive to the damage which publication of the memoirs in their present form would do, and that we will be advising the Cabinet Secretary to take a robust line on passages which bear on current events. I recommend that this be done before we offer advice to Sir R Butler and that the best way to do it will be to ask Sir John Coles to speak privately to the Governor while he is on Hong Kong on 17 May. I submit a draft telegram to the PUS seeking his agrement to this line, copied to Sir J Coles in Wellington.
PF Ricketts
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
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