Keith Hamilton (editor) - The Year of Europe: America, Europe and the Energy Crisis, 1972-74: Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Volume IV

FOREIGN & COMMONWEALTH OFFICE

DOCUMENTS ON BRITISH POLICY OVERSEAS

EDITED BY

KEITH HAMILTON

AND

PATRICK SALMON

ASSISTED BY

CHRISTOPHER BAXTER

AND

ALASTAIR NOBLE

SERIES III

Volume IV

First published 2006

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

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2006 Crown Copyright

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Published on behalf of the Whitehall History Publishing Consortium. Applications to reproduce Crown copyright protected material in this publication should be submitted in writing to: HMSO, Copyright Unit, St Clements House, 2-16 Colegate, Norwich NR3 1BQ. Fax: 01603 723000. E-mail:

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ISBN10: 0-415-39150-4 (pack)

ISBN10: 0-415-39149-0 (hbk)

ISBN13: 978-0-415-39150-4 (pack)

ISBN13: 978-0-415-39149-8 (hbk)

DOCUMENTS ON BRITISH POLICY OVERSEAS

Series III, Volume IV

The Year of Europe: America, Europe and the Energy Crisis, 1972-1974

WHITEHALL HISTORIES: FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE PUBLICATIONS

Series Editors: Keith Hamilton and Patrick Salmon

ISSN: 1471-2083

FCO historians are responsible for editing Documents on British Policy Overseas (DBPO) and for overseeing the publication of FCO Internal Histories.

DBPO comprises three series of diplomatic documents, focusing on major themes in foreign policy since 1945, and drawn principally from the records of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The latest volumes, published in Series III, contain archival material which would otherwise be unavailable to the public.

FCO Internal Histories are occasional studies by former serving officials, commissioned to provide background information for members of the FCO, to point out possible lessons for the future and to evaluate how well objectives were met in a particular episode or crisis. They are not written for publication, but some Internal Histories, which offer fresh insights into British diplomacy, are now being declassified for publication by Whitehall History Publishing in association with Routledge.

Latest published volumes:

Britain and China, 1945-1950

Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series I, Volume VIII

S.R. Ashton, G. Bennett and K.A. Hamilton (eds)

Britain and the Soviet Union, 1968-1972

Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Volume I

G. Bennett and K.A. Hamilton (eds)

The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, 1972-1975

Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Volume II

G. Bennett and K.A. Hamilton (eds)

Dtente in Europe, 1972-1976

Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Volume III

G. Bennett and K.A. Hamilton (eds)

Forthcoming volume:

The Southern Flank in Crisis, 1973-1976

Documents on British Policy Overseas, Series III, Volume V

K.A. Hamilton and P. Salmon (eds)

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Preface

Three years ago the Editors of Documents on British Policy Overseas (DBPO) decided to explore the possibility of compiling a volume of documents in electronic format, rather than in convential book form. It was felt that this would provide the public with easier access to Britains diplomatic record and that it would appeal to an academic community increasingly accustomed to working with computerised resources. Scholars and others interested in the making and conduct of British foreign policy could thereby be provided with a much larger number of documents than would otherwise be available in hard copy, and the documents would be fully searchable and could be reproduced in facsimile for research and teaching purposes. It was also assumed that by dispensing with some of the more detailed explanatory material, which must necessarily accompany a smaller selection of documents, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Historians would be able to hasten volume production. Readers would not be provided with the contextual cross-referencing, which has been a key feature of hard-copy volumes, but they would have the satisfaction of being able to view many more documents as they appear in sequence on file.

The two accompanying CD-ROMs, containing some 568 scanned documents, constitute the electronic component of this series ill volume. They focus on transatlantic relations during Britains first year as a member of the European Community, and cover British reactions to the launch in 1973 of the Nixon Administrations Year of Europe initiative, and the impact on the Atlantic Alliance of the fourth Arab-Israeli War and the Energy Crisis. To assist readers, brief summaries of the documents are here reproduced in printed text, along with an historical introduction to the volume, and lists of abbreviations and persons cited in the documents.

Acknowledgements

In accordance with the Parliamentary announcement cited in the Preface to Series I, Volume I of DBPO, the Editors have had the customary freedom in the selection and arrangement of documents including full access to all classes of FCO documentation. There have, in the case of the present volume, been no exceptional cases, such as were provided for in the Parliamentary announcement, where it has been necessary on security grounds to restrict the availability of particular documents, editorially selected in accordance with regular practice.

The main source of documentation in this volume has been the archives of the FCO, including papers originating with other Whitehall Departments. Most of the documents were consulted prior to their transfer to The National Archives (TNA). As indicated in the document summaries below, twelve documents were selected from FCO files which were subsequently destroyed because they did not meet the criteria of TNAs acquisition policy. These have been scanned and reproduced on CD-ROM from photocopies made at the pre-selection stage. The papers of Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Sir Thomas Brimelow, which proved a valuable supplementary source, await transfer. Other documents included on the CD-ROM, and already in the public domain, were selected from Cabinet Office records. In providing access to these records and for help in locating specific files, we are grateful to Mrs Heather Yasamee, Assistant Director and Head of the FCOs Information Management Group, and her staff, particularly Miss Margaret Ryan and Mrs Caroline Puddephatt, presently of, and Mrs Ann Birch, formerly of, Records Retrieval, and those in Library Information Services who have dealt with our many queries. We should also like to thank Ms Gill Bennett, who, prior to her retirement as the FCOs Chief Historian, was responsible for supervising the project; Dr Martin Longden, formerly of FCO Historians, who contributed much to its inception; Dr Christopher Baxter for his continuing administrative support; Ms Hala Bouguerne, our ever-resilient Publications Manager, Mr Eamonn Clifford, her immediate predecessor, and their assistants Mr Kewal Rai and Mr Craig Buchan, for their technical expertise; and Ms Sally Falk of the Histories, Openness and Records Section of the Cabinet Office, and Professor Geoffrey Berridge of the University of Leicester, both of whom aided and facilitated our researches. We are, however, especially indebted to Dr Alastair Noble, whose industry, intellectual curiosity and perseverence have proved so important to the completion of this work.