5.
before dispatch, from time to time making suggestions as to its content, and commented on "the replies from the Palace".
15 More about the circumstances of the keeping and deposit of the correspondence emerges from other documents which were put in evidence. The most salient of those other documents are conveniently noted in broadly chronological sequence.
16 First in chronological sequence are letters exchanged in late 1976 between Sir John Kerr and the then Private Secretary, Sir Martin Charteris. The letters are both marked "PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL". Initiating the exchange, Sir John wrote to Sir Martin in the following terms:
"This short letter is of a different kind from our usual correspondence. I recently had occasion to remake my will. This resulted in my realising that something should be done about my papers. These include, amongst other things, documents relevant to my Governor-Generalship, especially the crisis. They include a lot of diary notes, records of conversations and draft chapters of possible future books. Also included, of course, is my copy of the correspondence between us.
I would want to appoint literary editors to look after all my other papers, and as you would expect, I am under some pressure from libraries to leave my papers in their custody to be opened at some future time fixed by me. The Australian National Library is, of course, the strongest candidate.
I can make the appropriate decisions about papers which are exclusively mine, but our correspondence falls into a different category. We talked to some extent about this in London and you made the obvious point that this correspondence will have to be under embargo for a very long time.
One thing that worries me is, that if I were to die ... someone has to have the custody and control of our letters. Do you have any suggestions about this? I would not wish to leave this correspondence in Government House. Each Governor-General takes with him such material. Having regard to the probable historical importance of what we have written, it has to be, I think, preserved at this end as well as in the Palace. I assume that your records there are carefully preserved.
The alternatives appear to be to allow it to go into the custody of my literary editors, unopened and fully embargoed with instructions for it to be deposited in a bank or some other safe place, or to let it go to, say, the
