Dirty Tricks

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Albeit with an ill grace, H.E. has now accepted the two-tier arrangement ‘de facto and pro tem’. He made various disgruntled remarks about being in the same position as Soviet diplomats vis-a-vis the KGB, but took the point about the need to avoid attributable documentation. An old-school FO wallah, he would be happier reporting solely to Whitehall, but at the end of the day he’s one of us, and sufficiently vain to be flattered at having a ‘hot line to Downing Street’ as he put it. I’m sure you will be as relieved as I am that he’s taking this attitude. A new appointment at this stage could do nothing but harm.

Having established my bona fides, I then explained that our real reason for ‘rocking the gunboat’ (to quote H.E.) was not so much to bring this fellow to justice as to divert media attention from the recent allegations concerning clandestine links between the two countries. I quoted, to some effect I think, Bernard’s remark that the man in the street has only so much time for a banana republic like this, so if the lead story is SEX FIEND SHIPPED HOME IN CAGE, no one will have any further interest in the place.

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