◆ SpookStack

c Possible Methods of Securing 3fon~At tendance A. Exclusion or Suspension of Uganda from the Commonwealth 8. So long as Uganda is a member country of the Commonwealth, its President is entitled to attend the CHGM. Uganda was a party to the general agreement reached at Kingston in 1975 that London should bo the venue for the next Meeting. There is not a separate invitation t be extended or withheld by the British Government* 9. All decisions affecting membership of the Commonwealth are taken by consensus. There are no rules of procedure, but any such controversial measure as exclusion, or suspension, would have bo be considered by Heads of Government in person at a Meeting and not by • correspondence. It is impracticable to deal with Uganda's membership in advance of the Meeting. If it were made an issue at the Meotinp; (as for South Africa in 1961) it is unlikely that there would bo a consensus in favour of exclusion, or suspension pending the return of an acceptable government in Uganda. 10. In any case, the hostility of Britain and of other Commonwealth Governments is directed towards President Amin personally; a Ugandan delegation to the CHGM led by an uncontroversial figure would be acceptable to most participants. Other Commonwealth Heads of Governme have already been informed that we are not embarking on a course of exclusion or suspension from the Commonwealth* B» Unilateral Exclusion 1*1* We Might either:- i. wait until the Meeting and then prevent him from attending if he were to attempt to do soj ii. announce at an earlier stage that we would not permit him to enter Britain. The advantage of the first course is that he may not in the even I; come and we would thus be absolved from taking action which might both seriously disrupt the CHGM and have repercussions for our community in Uganda. But as the Meeting approached, public opinion hero would increasingly demand to know what our policy was, and it would be unlikely to be acceptable that the Government should have to ad mil: that it was doing nothing in the hope of Amin's non-attendance. •12. Either course, however, would carry the risk that Amin would nevertheless persist in trying to attend. Home Office and FGO Legal Advisers are agreed that we have the power to deny him admission to the UK. Enforcing that power might, however, cause us problems. We could perhaps deny landing rights to his aircraft (but he could transfer to a regular airline). Equally, the avoidance of physical force if he actually landed might be difficult to achieve. 13* A decision to exclude President Amin would moreoever have to be /taken SECRET