LEAKS AND OFFICIAL SERCRETS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100090003-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: July 2, 1976
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

iSl Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RD
ARTICLE Xe2!Z4AEQ' WASiIIN?+GTON FOS '
f?r'YPA,g9 A-23 y 2 JULY 1.970
1 -.46
Bernard D.- Nossiter.
P91-00561 R0001 00090003-9
peaks and Official
LONDON-"Leaking," Premiere
James Callaghan once explained. to a
commission: of inquiry, "is what you do..
and briefing is what I do."
'Th.ts splendid distinction, worthy of
Leu is Carroll, is still the most prescient
summary of the eternal brouhaha that
has arisen here again.
.Callaghan himselfhas just given us a
neat demonstration of the difference::
Hehad let it be known that he will not
tolerate any reform of the Officials Se-
crets`Act, that superb. defense. against
open government, which can in. theory
jail for two years any luckless civil ser-
vant Who-leaks or any luckless. journal-
1he-urriter is The Post's London cor-
resj3endent..
ist:who receives an unpublished index
of_ wages for dustmen in Ealing. What
the._prime minister: was 'doing on this.
occasion was briefing, even if he read
from a cabinet minute. He is one of the
selfauthorizing few--a class not de-.
firre.in'law-who can tell anyone any
thing:
'But this.same Callaghan has worked
himself up into a lather because some-
body else in government gave Frank-
Field,--director of the Child Poverty Ac-
tion' Group, minutes -to six cabinet.
meetings that showed how_Callaghan's
government killed a promised welfare
plan. Indeed, the prime. minister. is so
upset: be. is now reversing his-briefing
persona- and publicly saying perhaps.
the Act should be reformed after all.. He-does : not, however, make- clear
whether his "reform" would._tighten.or
loosen its fearsome grip.
Callaghan has every reason to be fu-
rious. The minutes reveal that he repu-
diated one of Labor's most solemn
pledges, to lift the income of families
below the poverty line. Even worse, the.
documents show that CaIlahg3n and
Denis Healey, the able Chancellor of
the Exchequer, tricked their own col-
leagues to get their assent
Callaghan is pictured citing a non-ex-
istent, poll of Labor MPs to support his
position; Healey is seen- telling. union,
leaders that the cabinet is -firmly
against the welfare plan and then tell-
ing the cabinet that the union chiefs
want it postponed. This is the sort of
thing a Lyndon Johnson would have
admired and is precisely the inside_
view of government Britons almost
never get; .
"Utterly reprehensible." cried Calla-
ghan when Field published a summary
of the minutes in the weekly New So-
ciety. Callaghan promptly turned loose
the nation's top civil servant, Sir Doug.
las Allen, chief of the Home Civil Serv-
er
ice, to find the leaky culprit. Powell, ,vho first attained fame in this
Sir Douglas, as expected, did not. field by predicting rivers of blood
Field told him it would be "morally re- would flow, read out the key portions
prehensible" to blow the whistle on his and predicted violence would soon fol-
sources. The government is so embar- ' low. It was apparently a self-fulfilling
rassed by the.whole affair it will not prophecy.
pursue Field further, but Scotland: -But there was no outburst of indigna-
Yard. will now take over where Sir Lion from Callaghan over.this leak. He
Douglas left off. assigned an ambassador who was home
Just to rub it: in; Field said-he gets for consultation to look into it and
leaked government documents all the nothing more has been heard of hum.
time, frequently in ?a,shopping basket. - That was hardly surprising. AsHome*
That encouraged the chiefs of the Na- Secretary at the time of Powell's.river-
tional. Council- for Civil Liberties and of-blood speech, Callaghan imposed the
National Association for-Mental Health first slowdown on the flow of eligible
to say they did too e Asians. (This is- not a very large group.
Caliaghan's anger over the leaked
minutes was in sharp contrast to his re-
straint over the surfacing of a.much
deadlier confidential document This
was a report on Asian immigrants that
was given to and exploited by right-
wing leader Enoch Powell. It was fol-
lowed almost at once by violent out-
breaks against Asian women in at least
three English towns.
The report by Donald Hawley, a se-
nior Foreign Office official, asserted
there was no limit to the Asians Britain -
must ta;;a in md at large numbers
were coming in by fraud. As a piece of
research, the document is highly sus-
pect. It did, however, offer one genuine
point: the fact that Asians here legiti-
inately can bring in fiances from the
subcontinent, and this makes ;: diffi-
cult to fix precisely the extent'cf' Brit-
The paper was dynamite j r. the hands
of Powell, a nationalist MP who now
sits in the House of Commons with the
Protestant hardliners from Ulst
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100090003-9