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BI~ITISH-AMElqlCAN TOB~_CCO CO~fPANY LIMITED TO P. Sheehy, Esq. FROM DATE R. L. 0. Ely REF RLOE/JW 26th February, 1981 CONTACT WITH THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION ~:z:= b ...... As you know, last December I spoke to Dr. Thomas Lambo, No. 2 of the World Health Organisation. At that time we discussed, as we had in the middle of 1979, the possibility of some sort of meeting between our company and the WHO. At.Dr. Lambo's request, I sent him a draft personal letter proposing the meeting. At the beginning of this week I heard from him that the letter should now be sent. Mr. Stewart Lockhart had previously seen the letter when I originally drafted it, and Legal Department have seen the final draft. For your ready reference, a copy is attached. Dr. Lambo asked what the ind~,~try h(~ped I.o ~eh out of ~,e meeting since he himself was a little bit p:n~imtstic. This is a duvelopment since I last spoke to him and ce:'tni~,tV sil~c, I originally spoke to him in 1979. The main problem, I inf,~r, is that WHO would find it very difficult to go into reverse too obviously and r~ipidly on their existing programmes. I did poJn~ out to him that I felt, again as previously discussed, that a meeting and exchange of views would be valuable since I was not convinced thut they were fully aware of all that was being done. He agreed that an exchange of views would be valuable but he d£d say that they had an immense amount Of computerised information about the industry. I mentioned to him that we have had contact with the B.M.A. and that they have declared themselves to have been quite out-of-touch and ignorant about what was going on in the industry until they had heard from us. I also explalned the problems that the industry had about making any public declaration. One thing that I think Dr. Lambo may ask is whether the industry would be prepared to contribute money to further research. I was entirely non-committal about this, pointing out the amount of research that we have done, but not excluding the possibility of further help. Dr. Lambo said that he thought probably four or five people would come from their side and suggested that.we might bring a similar number. Originally I had tentitively suggested that there would at least be myself, a Board member with scientific knowledge, and a representative of the international industry. I did not at that CD ~4D

-2- "::2:. ...... stage mention any names but I believe that it would be useful to go with Dr. Blackman and Mary CovinEton. Nick Brookes or somebody from that team might also go. The present intention is that Lambo will discuss my letter with his colleaEues in Geneva and that a meetinE would then be arranged for some time in April at the WHO. • Enc C.C, Dr. L. C. F. Blackman C. H. Stewart Lockhart, Esq. R. Haddon, Esq. .---::.. 0 0 L.,4 CD

"c~:::" 7::;" 8AT BRITISH-AI%'fERICAN TOBACCO CO~[P:kI'qZ" LI_h~ITED lt,.~d. Office: 1'0 Bu:.. 4,~2 WestmJua~.er House 7 Mt!ibank Lon.i,,n .bW1P 3.]E CONFIDENTIAL RLOE/JW Dr. T. A. Lambo, World Health Organisation, 1211 Geneva, 27 Switzerland. lg81 Dear Tom, I refe~ to our discussions about a year ago and more recently in Geneva which I certainly found of interest. When we first talked about matters of smoking and health, you pointed out to me how very seriously the W.H.O. took this subject and that you were mounting a worldwlde campaign to curtail smoking and bring the dangers as you saw them to the notice of governments in particular, and the public in general. You suggested several things that the industry could do and as I indicated to you, we have in fact been doing them. You also suESested that a dialogue between yourselves and the industry might prove fruitful. In this latter connection, I mentioned to you that here in England, we have been in touch with the British Medical Association to indicate to them some of the things we do and that it seemed to me that these leaders of scientific thought were interested in acquiring further knowledge about smoking 8nd health and the industry. You and I first met in Nigeria and I am very much aware of your intense interest in matters affecting the Third World. As I myself have had the good fortune to serve for something like sixteen years in countries in various stages of development, I thoroughly appreciate your desire to safe-guard the interests of those countries. I think also that from the attitude that B.A.T. has taken over various issues over many years, I have been encouraged by example as well as by my own natural inclinations to ensure that we always try to act in the mutual best interests of all concerned. With this in mind, I was wondering whether it would be useful for one or two of us to get together informally to discuss matters which affect our industry and your interests. Perhaps I and a colleague from my company could come and see you and if you feel it.would be useful we might also brinE a representative of the international industry. A possible colleague from our company, I believe, would be somebody with scientific knowledge and Board level status so that we could talk over matters from a managerial point of view, but on [~ the basis of sound scientific information. Perhaps in such a conversation ~-J we could consider how we could then further develop a dialogue between CD yourself, the W.H.O., B.A.T. and the rest of the industry, tj] ./.

Dr. T. A. Lambo - 2 - 23rd February, 1981 .'j:j'-- I feel our conversations indicated that you were aware of the managerial and political implications of our position. As a result, not only am I extremely grateful for the time which you were able to give me hut I believe we could build on this exchange of views. It is for this reason I wonder whether you would li~e to consider an Informal meeting of the sort I have suggested above.,~e wodld, of course~ be delighted to come to Geneva if this suits you best as I know you have a very busy travelling schedule. Please le% me know when and what you feel the next step should be. With warmest personal regards, Yours very sincerely, ..'.. 3 CID