British Foreign Chief Acts as Decoy in Czech Pub

Britain’s foreign secretary, acting as a decoy, sang songs in a Prague tavern with the Czech foreign minister while British officials met with Czech dissidents, newspapers here reported today.

The London Times said two British officials used Sir Geoffrey Howe’s two-day visit to Prague, which ended Thursday, to meet secretly with representatives of two dissident groups, Charter 77 and the Society for the Protection of the Oppressed.

The Daily Express, said: “Details read like a page from a Le Carre spy novel,” referring to British novelist John Le Carre.

The paper predicted Czech authorities would be outraged.

Howe told a Prague news conference Thursday before flying to Poland on the last stop of his East European swing that his delegation raised religious and human rights questions when they met with Charter 77 representatives, but did not elaborate.

The London Times said the two British officials were Undersecretary Derek Thomas, a senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, and John Birch, head of the East European Department of the Foreign Office.

“Taking advantage of a gap in the official program, the two men slipped away from the entourage to see the dissidents, whose names are being kept secret to prevent reprisals,” the paper said.

“Sir Geoffrey was drinking with his counterpart, Mr. Bohuslav Chnoupek, at the Seven Angels Tavern, a Gypsy bar, at the time.

“The two officials’ chairs remained empty for most of the session which included raucous singing by the entourages of ‘Good King Wenceslas’ and, by (Welsh-born) Sir Geoffrey, of (the hymn) ‘Bread of Heaven’ in Welsh,” the newspaper said.

“Having held their discussions at a clandestine rendezvous in Prague, the officials returned unnoticed under cover of loud Gypsy music. They passed a message to the foreign secretary, which in effect read: Mission accomplished.

Other British newspapers carried similar reports.

The Daily Telegraph said the dissidents told the Britons “their suffering was bearable and the risks they took worthwhile if they knew that they were being heard outside their country.”