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These documents were scanned, collated and catalogued by Ruth Murray, Annabel Harris, Isha Pareek, Eleanor Williams, Antoine Yenk, Harriet Carter, Oliver Nicholls, Kieran Wetherwick, and Cerys Griffiths.
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APW/744/JT
FROM AUSTIN WILSON
US (LAW AND ORDER)
14 MARCH 1991
PS/Secretary of State (B&L)
cc PS/Paymaster Gen (B&L)
PS/MofS (B&L)
PS/Sir K Bloomfield
Mr Ledlie
Mr Pilling
Mr Wood (B&L)
Mr Petch
Mr McNeill
HMG CONTACTS WITH THE PROVISIONALS
I am replying to your minute of 13 March reports in that day’s Newsletter, and in particular the article by Ric Clarke. The Secretary of State had expressed concern about references in the article, apparently based on Army sources, to the effect that there had been regular contacts last year between “British intelligence” (there was a further reference to “MI5 operatives based at Thiepval and Stormont”) and “two high ranking IRA members”. The front page “trailer” for the Ric Clarke article also stated presumably to support the assertions in the main report, that the Prime Minister had last month confirmed that ‘direct and indirect contact’ had been maintained with Sinn Fein and went on to say that in a so-called written statement he “did not deny that any contact had been made with Sinn Fein”.
The Secretary of State is, I am sure, right in linking the references to the Prime Minister’s “written statement” to the letter which Mr Major sent last month to Mr David Trimble MP, who had also asked about contacts (with both Sinn Fein and the IRA) following an article by Chris Ryder in the Daily Telegraph. You will have a copy of the text of this as sent. But, in the draft I have seen, the phrase “direct and indirect contact” does not appear. Instead, Mr Trimble was being told simply that “Minister and some Government officials will have contact with elected Sinn Fein representatives in respect of local matters and constituency interests”. The draft letter went on to say that “As to contacts with terrorists, HMG takes the view that there cannot be – and there have not been – talks or negotiations with [people who use or threaten violence to advance their arguments]”. (The words underlined appear between quotation marks in the Newsletter front page article).
As the Secretary of State will know, the position as stated by the Prime Minister to Mr Trimble is the correct one. There has been no contacts (still less “secret talks”) with the IRA about a ceasefire. The Newsletter’s assertions about such contacts are completely mistaken.
I regret that I have not been able to establish, in my attempts to discover the source for the Newsletter reports, “who said what to whom”. My contacts last night with HQNI (the GOC’s office, Chief of Staff and the Chief Information Officer) produced a total (though, to me, unconvincing) denial that there had been any known contact between Army “sources” and the reporter. Mr Clarke, I was told was not on the Army “hit list” as someone to use for a story. No one had had any recent contacts with him. The Chief Information Officer had made enquiries earlier in the day about the possible source of the story, but had drawn on complete blank etc etc. In effect, my message to the Army was : “I believe you, but don’t let it happen again!”
So far as I am aware, the “story” has not been picked up by the newspaper. If that is the case, my advice would now be that the least said about it the better. If the Secretary of State does find himself being questioned about contacts, he will no doubt wish to answer consistently with the terms of the Prime Minister’s reply to Mr Trimble.
(signed APW)
A P WILSON
Ext SH 2218
27 1988 - 2023
38 1993 - 1993
55 101 - 1991
64 1993 - 2020
26 1993 - 1993
57 1993 - 1993
59 1993 - 1993
51 1993 - 1993
18 1993 - 1993
24 1993 - 1994
41 1993 - 1994
32 1993 - 1994
72 101 - 1994
8 101 - 1990
76 101 - 1994
1 1994
60 101 - 1994
65 1993 - 2023
37 101 - 1993
54 101 - 1993
32 101 - 1993
77 1993 - 1993
58 101 - 2018
49 1993 - 1997
61 101 - 1992
38 101 - 1991
48 1992 - 1993
134 101 - ?-??
59 101 - 2023
84 101 - 1993
64 101 - 1991
44
11
31 1996 - 1996
61 1996 - 1996
49 1996 - 1996
20 1996 - 1997
32 1996 - 1996
48 1996 - 1996
74 1996 - None
4 1996 - 1996
33 1996 - 1996
30 1996 - 1996
7 1996 - 1996
24 1996 - 1996
9 1996 - 1996
59 1996 - 1996
60 1996 - 1996
14 1996 - 1997
41 1996 - 1996
45 1996 - 1996
67 1996 - 1996
16 1996 - 1996
87 1996 - None
23 1996 - 1996
79 1996 - None
22 1996 - 1996
1991-03-14
In this memo, Austin Wilson refers to reports in News Letter from 13 March 1991 regarding alleged contacts between the British Government and members of PIRA. He noted that the reports quoted a letter sent by John Major to David Trimble and claimed that its information had been taken from Army sources. Wilson attempted to discover the identity of these sources without success, and recommended that the British Government say as little as possible about the matter. The memo encloses news clippings of the aforementioned reports from News Letter. It contains some annotations.
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Unless otherwise specified, this material falls under Crown Copyright and contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
The National Archives of the UK (TNA), digitzed by the Quill Project at https://quillproject.net/resource_collections/351/.