The Prime Minister has seen Bonn telegram number 12 [of 5 January] commenting on our public line on the German question. She thought it showed a lack of understanding of our policy which she finds alarming. She would like to see any reply before it is sent. Charles Powell, No. 10, 9 January 1990 Trying to persuade Mrs Thatcher You told me this morning that you were concerned that the papers going to No. 10 should not leave any doubt that German unification is likely to take place sooner rather than later, whatever our own private preferences might be; and that events are also likely to force a major change of strategy upon NATO in the near future. John Weston, FCO, to Douglas Hurd, 8 January 1990 I am very impressed by the quality of the papers submitted under the PUS’s minute of 20 December … The analysis seems to me clear, and the realities to be recognised. I am not so happy with the clearly tactical considerations which have converted this analysis into the draft minute to the PM submitted under cover of your minute of 2nd January. I am not against sensible tactics in relation to No 10, but if ever there was a time when the Office should present the stark truth about what is likely to happen, and should avoid feeding illusions, that time is surely now. In my view the draft minute has made too many concessions to the views we expect to be held in No 10. William Waldegrave to John Weston, FCO, 8 January 1990 A transitional period as a possible way forward My feeling is that confederation remains unlikely to be the final answer to the German Question. There might possibly be a chance that it would stick, if espoused by the Three or Four Powers, as a transitional stage lasting a number of years. … But we must allow for the possibility that confederation will not run even as a transitional stage. So we need another idea in our quiver. One possibility might be an agreed transition period from the moment when German unity becomes certain until the completion of its implementation. Such a period might last 5 years, perhaps a bit longer. … The purpose of establishing a transition period before German unity was completed would be to provide a stable framework not least for the negotiation of all the other complex matters that would need to be settled; and to fend off pressures for rapid, unstable movement towards unity. Sir Christopher Mallaby, Bonn, 9 January 1990 The Foreign Office gives Mrs Thatcher blunt advice [The Prime Minister said that] We needed to think through much more carefully the implications of reunification and the conditions which would have to be fulfilled if it were to proceed with the full support of Germany’s allies. … The Foreign Secretary said that work was already being done on these points. He would let the Prime Minister have the results before her meeting with President Mitterrand, together with some specific proposals which she could make at that meeting. What we could not produce was a blue print for stopping German reunification. The Prime Minister accepted this, while stressing that equally we should not approach work on the German question in the spirit that reunification was inevitable and all we had to do was adjust to it. Charles Powell, No. 10, 10 January 1990
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