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C ' j; u •'' - 2 - / On the question of a telephone call by the Prime ' Minister (which had been discussed earlier today in Brussels) Mr. Crosland said that he was sure this would be a mistake. If the purpose was to talk about Mrs. Bloch, it would achieve nothing. If it was designed to cool the situation by drawing on the Prime Minister's personal relationship with President Amin there was a danger, either that a friendly conversation would be followed within a month or so by President Amin's discovery that we had started to disengage and consequent hostile reactions on his part; or that he would invite the Prime Minister to visit Uganda or suggest a visit by himself to London; or that we would give the impression of crawling to President Amin for no particular purpose. The Prime Minister said that he accepted Mr. Crosland's advice that the idea of a telephone call should be kept in reserve. He had, however, envisaged that the call would have two purposes, one of which would have been to obtain a formal assurance that British citizens would not be harassed. Mr. Crosland said that there might come a time when the Prime Minister's influence would be needed for this purpose, but only when British citizens were being harassed. He did not think that our goodwill should be dissipated now. He had thought of sending Mr. Hennessey back to Uganda tomorrow, but had concluded that he should remain here for another five or six days. In response to a question, Mr. Crosland said that he did not think we should meanwhile try to obtain assurances through the Acting High Commissioner in Kampala. The Prime Minister questioned whether instructions could be given to the British community to leave, and asked whether a plan existed for evacuating them. He recalled that about 250 British citizens had been collected in about 24 hours during his visit to Kampala two years ago. Mr. Crosland said that there was a very elaborate evacuation plan in existence, based on a Lebanese-type situation in Uganda. Mr. Hennessey had told him that there was a simpler plan, based on the use of two Boeing 707s, and he had been asked to check on this and let Mr. Crosland have a written report. In the course of a discussion on domestic politics, M r . C r o s l a n d recalled that, after the Dennis Hills episode, the Government's policy of disengagement from Uganda had been deliberately reversed. He had no intention of repeating that reversal. Neither his own Ministers nor the Shadow Foreign Secretary had been particularly struck by the strength of opinion in the House of Commons. /In ttje course