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I o NOV1978 F,Uf4G INSTRUCTIONS Fit£ No. —• *" J Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH 9 November 1978 Ugandan Attack on Tanzania In my letter of 8 November I referred to the requests for the supply of a very wide range of military equipment received from the Tanzanians and said that the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary believed we should concentrate on trying to hasten delivery of the items which the Tanzanians already had on order from UK suppliers. Appropriate instructions were sent to our High Commissioner in Dar-es-Salaam who has now spoken to the Tanzanian Prime Minister, who in turn consulted President Nyerere. (Dar-es-Salaam telnos / 802 and 803 enclosed). President Nyerere and his Prime Minister are very disappointed at what they regarded as an inadequate response on our part. They made it clear that they had been expecting offers of assistance on a government-to-government basis, in the belief that that will make delivery easier and quicker. Dr Owen agrees with our High Commissioner that in the circum- stances we should try to respond to the Tanzanians in as forthcoming a way as is possible. In the light of discussion in Cabinet this morning he believes we should do so, without commitment to consider the supply of the highly sophisticated and very expensive items of equipment on the Tanzanian list, such as anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles. Quite apart from cost and other considerations, the fact is that the delivery lead times of such equipment are very long, and therefore nothing of this kind could be supplied to Tanzania within a sensible time scale. Dr Owen therefore thinks that we should concentrate on supplying those items of equipment which are readily available; and that we should be prepared to do so without charge to Tanzania, within a moderate ceiling. In practice the kind of package that we envisage putting together would be to offer to supply: a small quantity (I understand 6 are available) of Carl Gustav anti-tank guns from Defence Supply stock here, together with suitable quantiti* of ammunition; radio equipment; a small number of mine detectors (all that are available after the supply to Zambia); and, if available, a number of assault boats (which the Tanzanians need to cross the Kagera river). / Dr Owen Bryan Cartledge Esq No 10 Downing Street CONFIDENTIAL