Government and Military

Prime Minister Tony Blair,

10 Downing St,

London.

SW1A 2AA.

2/5/98.

Dear Tony Blair,

Thank-you for your reply of 3rd April 1998. We are sorry that you feel unable to meet with us to discuss the important issues we raised, especially in view of our proposed campaign to uphold international law by physically attempting to disarm the Trident system ourselves. As you are probably aware 59% of British people recently polled by Gallup felt that it would be best for their security if Britain did not have nuclear weapons and 87% wanted the Government to help negotiate a global treaty to prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons. I have enclosed the results so you can see in more detail the most recent poll of British opinion. We are very disturbed to find that there has been no considered reply to the substantive arguments in our letter of 18th March. We are disappointed that you have not addressed the basic issue of how humanitarian law can be squared with the deployment and threat to use a warhead that has a yield going up to 120 kilotons. A response on this point would be appreciated. We disagree that the United Kingdom holds an ’entirely defensive nuclear deterrent posture’. Trident is a first-strike weapon. Is your Government prepared to sign an agreement not to use nuclear weapons first under any circumstances? Do you not feel that we can hardly expect ’real progress towards global disarmament’ if we are unwilling to take the initiative ourselves? In our previous letter we outlined a series of nine realistic requests that you could fulfil that would show an unambiguous commitment to a process of British nuclear disarmament. We would like to have the opportunity to discuss these proposals with you and ask that you find time to meet with us or delegate another member of your Cabinet to meet with us as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, our Trident Ploughshares 2000 project continues. As promised we have publicly launched the project today at simultaneous press conferences in Hiroshima, Gothenburg, Gent, London and Edinburgh. We include in this letter a current list of those 62 global citizens who have signed the Pledge to Prevent Nuclear Crime, the Nonviolence and Safety Pledge and have undergone training and preparation and are ready to actively disarm the Trident system or help support disarmers. We will not start our attempts until August 11th to give time for you to consider our requests. More people are being trained and we will provide you with an updated list of all official TP2000 activists and supporters on 18th July and thereafter around three weeks before our ’open’actions that will take place every three months.

We are being completely open and nonviolent in our attempts to prevent gross breaches of humanitarian law and would like to assure you that the door for dialogue and negotiation is always open.

Yours sincerely,

Sylvia Boyes, Tracy Hart, Ellen Moxley, Brian Quail, Helen Steven, Ian Thomson, and Angie Zelter.

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