Dear Editor,
I ask that, in the interest of transparency and good form, you be good enough to publish the following letter of invitation that I have sent to P Chin via e-mail.
"Dear P Chin,
I have had discussions with officials at the ministry concerning your letter published in the Observer of Monday, September 7, 2015, and we have decided as follows:
1. That you sent forward the letter, as you say, on the basis of a one-sided interview which you heard on Nationwide.
2. That you stated, in sum, that the other side, the Government, had come up looking badly, in the absence of information and explanations to the contrary, even though it did appear that you were prepared to draw certain adverse conclusions, based solely on what you had heard.
3. We took note that, in your writings in the press, over time, fairness has shone through as a clear ingredient.
4. That the ministry would abandon a previous position that we would send a reply to your letter to the Observer, but would instead ask you to be the judge, taking into account the information that was forwarded to you from my office today.
5. Now, having had "information" from both sides, we will be satisfied with the verdict that you give publicly.
6. We must tell you that our research has not revealed any assistance given to any inmate in a foreign land, in terms of time, money spent, air travel, international telephone calls, petitions for pardon, that can match the outlay of the Government towards that inmate in Qatar.
7. We are confident that the press would be obliged to publish your judgement as prominently as they did your last letter.
We ask you to be the judge on behalf of the readership of the Observer and subscribers to any other news agency to which you might have sent your letter.
Thanking you.
Arnold J Nicholson
Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Foreign Trade
Foreign Ministry invites dialogue on treatment of J'can pilot in Qatar
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I ask that, in the interest of transparency and good form, you be good enough to publish the following letter of invitation that I have sent to P Chin via e-mail.
"Dear P Chin,
I have had discussions with officials at the ministry concerning your letter published in the Observer of Monday, September 7, 2015, and we have decided as follows:
1. That you sent forward the letter, as you say, on the basis of a one-sided interview which you heard on Nationwide.
2. That you stated, in sum, that the other side, the Government, had come up looking badly, in the absence of information and explanations to the contrary, even though it did appear that you were prepared to draw certain adverse conclusions, based solely on what you had heard.
3. We took note that, in your writings in the press, over time, fairness has shone through as a clear ingredient.
4. That the ministry would abandon a previous position that we would send a reply to your letter to the Observer, but would instead ask you to be the judge, taking into account the information that was forwarded to you from my office today.
5. Now, having had "information" from both sides, we will be satisfied with the verdict that you give publicly.
6. We must tell you that our research has not revealed any assistance given to any inmate in a foreign land, in terms of time, money spent, air travel, international telephone calls, petitions for pardon, that can match the outlay of the Government towards that inmate in Qatar.
7. We are confident that the press would be obliged to publish your judgement as prominently as they did your last letter.
We ask you to be the judge on behalf of the readership of the Observer and subscribers to any other news agency to which you might have sent your letter.
Thanking you.
Arnold J Nicholson
Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Foreign Trade
Foreign Ministry invites dialogue on treatment of J'can pilot in Qatar
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