Fresh Instructions to Counsel

(The Australian Federal Court had rejected Mr Irving's appeal against the denial of a visa)

To: Mr Peter Spensely Bates
- Barrister at Law -
Suite 17, London Court
Perth
West Australia 6000

Fax: 00 61 9 221 1707; copied to Ed Wall

Dear Peter,
I HAVE READ the opinion you sent to Ed Wall yesterday; I found it most instructive. Please don't feel aggrieved that Professor Maher is taking an interest in the case. If he continues to write favourable articles in the SLR, [Sydney Law Review] etc., it can only do good in the long run. Right? My own confidence in you is unbounded, particularly having read your masterly summary of the legal aspects, which it make it so easy for me to take decisions, tho' so far away.

These are ó and I am so instructing Ed Wall ó that

1. We do not appeal to the High Court.
   
2. We now start actions under the Commonwealth Freedom of Information Act to establish precisely what facts have been fed to the Minister.
   
3. I thereafter lodge a new application for a visa later this year.

Meanwhile I am manoeuvring to get from lawyers acting for the Board of Deputies of British Jews a document admitting that the 90pp report on me which they submitted secretly to the Canadian government in 1991 and 1992 ó which triggered the whole avalanche ó is defamatory and untrue, and to withdraw it. They have indicated to me that they are prepared to (as part of a secret settlement to avoid libel action). Would not such a document knock the tentpole out of the whole case?

N.B. if granting a visa is made conditional on paying the AUS$20,000 costs awarded against us, that is no problem; in that event I can raise that amount from the media beforehand.

Yours sincerely,

David Irving

81 Duke Street,
Grosvenor Square,
London W1M 5DJ
tel. 01 71 499 9409
fax. 01 71 409 7048