President: Will Japan go along?
Kissinger: We could do it without one country. Japan would welcome it but probably not participate in it.
President: Your North Sea development will start in 1980, I understand.
Heath: It should start in 1976. We object to the Labour Government's insistence on 51 percent Government participation, which has only slowed things. They would get it through taxes anyway. By the 1980's we should be suppliers.
President: Do you have refineries?
Heath: We have enormous refining capacity.
President: What about the other Europeans?
Heath: The Norwegians. They are very canny. They want it to last centuries and so they are doing little with it now.
President: When were the lines drawn?
Heath: It was done in the north in the 1960's. In the south it is still not settled. We are sparring with the French on that. Also there is a remote rock in the Atlantic that we put a flag on.
Kissinger: You will probably get the Greeks and Turks, too, fighting over offshore oil.
Heath: I had a good trip to China. Interesting how they see the stability of U.S.-Chinese relationship.
President: I had a good visit there in '72 with Hale Boggs. We think our relationship is on schedule and we want to keep it so.
Kissinger: The Chinese wanted Heath to go for a long time. But he didn't make it until after he left office.
Heath: Mao said we just sent 104 Soviet spies home and that was the way to deal with them.
SECRET/NODIS/XGDS
