Government and Military

The Rt Hon Robin Cook MP,

Secretary of State,

Foreign and Commonwealth Office,

Downing Street,

London, SW1A 2AA.

19/5/98.

Dear Robin Cook,

We are writing to follow up our letter of 18th March to which the Prime Minister’s Private Scretary replied on 3rd April. I enclose a copy of our letter to the Prime Minister together with a copy of the Trident Ploughshares 2000 Handbook.

We were very disappointed with the Prime Minister’s reply - both in his refusal to meet with us and in the avoidance of any discussion of the detailed points we raised in our letter. We recognise that the Government feels bound by its manifesto commitment to retain Trident but even allowing for this constraint we are convinced that there is room for the Government to take many more steps towards disarmament than it has been prepared to do. It is precisely because we are aware of the political complexities and take this matter so very seriously that we are seeking a meeting. But more than this: we believe that the moral arguments and the legal case, in the light both of the ICJ Opinion and other developments, for the abandonment of Tridents are overwhelming. Our letter to the Prime Minister attempted to deal with these issues and we are now addressing our request for a meeting to you in the sincere hope that you will agree to discuss these matters with us or, if your own commitments rule this out, that we can meet with one of your colleagues or some of your officials. We look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely,

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

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