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CONFIDENTIAL f Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH 15 July 1976 1: 7 Last night the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary gave a briefing on Uganda to a number of newspaper editors. I attach a list of those who attended. He told them that he was taking the unusual step of confiding to them his conclusions of the policy review. He emphasised that the briefing was not for use but was for their personal background information. Mr Crosland explained that there were two options. The first was to denounce- Amin and break off diplomatic relations immediately. This was the option which superficially had the greater attraction. It would certainly go down well with Parliament, the press and public opinion. It would free us from further blackmail. However, he was advised by those who knew Uganda and President Amin that such a course would run the risk of provoking reprisals against the British community in Uganda•;>- Such harrassment of the community could easily result in loss of life, if not from the actions of Amin himself then from those of his unruly soldiery. Consequently he had decided to adopt the alternative option of avoiding precipitate action with the objective of achieving an orderly disengagement from Uganda. When we thought that those of the community who could be persuaded to leave had had enough time so to do we would quietly withdraw our High Commission. The timing here would be imprecise but it would have to be a matter of weeks. The British community already knew the score, but we would be taking more specific steps to advise them to leave. We were conveying this message both to the headquarters of firms and missionary societies with people in Uganda and, so far as was possible, directly to members of the British community in Uganda. Because of the way the British community was spread out in Uganda, a forced evacuation would present extremely difficult problems. On the other hand, there was a good chance that over a few weeks those who would be prepared to leave would have a chance to go in good order. There was already a prickle out of Uganda. Mr Crosland said he accepted that the chosen option ran risks but these were much less than would be the case if he had announced an immediate break in relations. Moreover President Amin could at any moment take action which would force us to abandon an orderly withdrawal and go into a forced evacuation. /Contingency Patrick Wright Esq., 10 Downing Street