Foreign & Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH

From the Minister of State

3 December 1999

The Lord Melchett
Executive Director
Greenpeace UK
Canonbery Villas
London N1 2PN

Dear Peter

Thank you for your letter of 8 November.

The government is also concerned about Japan's "scientific" whaling programme. The UK strongly supports the International Whaling commission (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling. We believe that the Japanese could obtain much of their scientific data on whales using non-lethal methods.

Following the latest programme of "scientific" whaling, I wrote to the Japanese State Secretary for Foreign Affairs explaining our position, and asking for the whaling programme to be suspended immediately.

Persuading the Japanese to stop whaling will not be easy. However, we will continue to raise the issue as part of our long term objective: a permanent ban on all whaling, except limited subsistence whaling by indigenous peoples.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Hain
Foreign Minister of the United Kingdom