London, 20 July 1962
Personal
Thank you so much for your letter of July 11 and for the very interesting and useful account of your talks in Washington.1 I am glad that you found the Americans in a helpful mood. I am quite sure that your visit will have been of great value, particularly in impressing on the President the importance of the Commonwealth interest in the Common Market problem.
As to the Conference in September, it would, of course, be helpful to me if you were able to get to London for a few days before it opens—say on the Wednesday or Thursday, September 5 or 6. I shall be around then and would enormously value the chance of talking privately with you, not only because of your long experience as a Prime Minister, but because, if I may say so, your friendship and counsel mean so much to me. I expect that one or two of the other Prime Ministers will come early as well, and this will enable us to hold some private consultations in advance. But our task at the Conference would not be eased if the impression were created that the old Commonwealth were ganging up in advance. We ought therefore to avoid the appearance of formal collective discussion in this limited circle before the others arrive. It would be wiser if, at that stage, our talks could be private and, in the main, bilateral.
Once the Conference starts the older Commonwealth countries will have other opportunities to meet, without this difficulty. For we had always envisaged that countries with the same interests would have to meet in groups to discuss their particular interests, and I do not see that anyone can object to this. I have also decided that on this occasion we should be wise to dispense with the parties at Chequers. Chequers is not large enough to take all the Prime Ministers at a time, and the selection of weekend parties tends to be both invidious and inflexible. So I thought I would stay in London over the weekends, and in this way we could more easily hold whatever meetings, formal or informal, seem desirable.
I felt enormously encouraged and fortified by our talks, and look forward to seeing you again early in September.
1 Document 190.
[UKNA: PREM 11/4017]