As is customary, British Cabinet papers for 1960 were released to the Public Record Office on the first day of 1991 under the thirty-year rule, together with other papers previously held back because of their continuing sensitivity. Amongst the latter should have been minutes of Second World War cabinet discussions from 18 and 19 June 1940, which revealed that the British Government had considered handing Gibraltar to Spain after the war in return for guarantees from General Franco that Spain would remain neutral during the remainder of the war. Because it was felt that placing these minutes in the public domain might damage Britain's current negotiating position with Spain, it was decided by the Whitehall ‘weeders’ (presumably under instruction from the Foreign Office) to extend the delay on their release.

However, the minutes and their contents had already been released by mistake, and reference to them had been made in a book which had already been published. This reference was reported by The Guardian and picked up by the Spanish press. The Foreign Office was surely not amused at Whitehall's error. The last thing that the British Government wanted Spain to know was that they had long since viewed Gibraltar as expendable, and that they had even been prepared to hand the Rock over to a dictator against the wishes of the Gibraltarian people.

Joe Bossano was more concerned with what Britain planned to do about the colony in the future than with what it might have done in the past, and he continued to try to shape those plans through dialogue and collaboration with leaders in the Campo region.