Joel Brand was still languishing in Cairo, and the WRB was still debating how to string along the offer. The WRB informed the Soviet Union of the Brand offer, got an immediate ‘cease and desist any discussion of this’ cable in response, but were planning to explain to the Soviets that there was no intention of accepting the offer, but they wanted to stall for time.
On July 18th the British sent the US a memo about formally rejecting the offer. The British asked for an immediate response. Apparently, they weren’t willing to wait, because the British released details of the Joel Brand offer to the press, effectively ending any attempt that could have been made to stall for time. For all the times the British delayed their own response to US requests or debated things in endless meetings, this time they acted quickly and unilaterally. Thus ends the Joel Brand offer.
