London, 2 April 1973
Confidential
I am writing to tell you how much we are looking forward to seeing you here next month. The news of your visit has been very widely welcomed in this country—everyone is pleased that the Prime Minister of Australia is coming to London so soon in his term of office. At our talks we can discuss anything you would like to raise, but you may find it helpful to have in advance a note of the subjects which I have in mind. There are five broad headings:
a. International Affairs. I would be interested to exchange ideas with you, for example, about developments in South-East Asia and the Far East, and about the Commonwealth Conference.
b. Defence Matters. I hope that’ we might discuss the FiVe Power Defence Arrangements. In this connection, I was glad to learn from Peter Carrington about your intention of leaving enough personnel in Singapore to give support to the logistic arrangements for the ANZUK Force. Now I hear there is some doubt about this. I greatly hope that your plans will be fully discussed with your partners before any decision or announcement is made. Meanwhile, I feel that it is in the interests of us all that nothing should be said in public or done which could arouse speculation about the future of the Force and hence of the Five Power Arrangements themselves.
c. Constitutional Issues. Apart from those which are matters directly between The Queen and Australia, there may be others such as Appeals to the Privy Council which you may want to discuss. You will remember that after Senator Murphy’s visit1 you said you would let me have a paper setting out your views both on the substantive changes you want and on procedure. There are complex, legal issues involved, and, if you want to pursue this while you are in London, it would be very helpful if I could have your suggestions in advance, so that I could prepare myself thoroughly for our talk.
d. Intelligence Co-operation. I think it would be useful for us to have a talk about this.
e. Economic and Financial Matters.
I know that you have a lot on your plate at present but I thought it would be useful to let you have these preliminary ideas. I hope you will let me have any reactions before you come, together with a note on any other subjects you may wish to raise yourself and on which you will like to reach decisions with us while you are here.
1 See Documents 440 and 441.
[NAA: A1209, 1973/6292]