British PM in 1978 wild moose chase over Canadian nature trail

Britain's then prime minister and officials spent months fretting about whether he slighted a Canadian province by failing to visit a nature trail named after him, secret files from 1978 showed Tuesday.

A trail at the Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland -- a UNESCO World Heritage Site boasting waterfalls, sandy beaches and a freshwater fjord -- was named after James Callaghan in September 1976.

But the following May, Canadian politician James McGrath told British officials there was "considerable resentment" in Newfoundland over his failure to acknowlege this, said a letter from a Downing Street official to Sir John Johnston, then high commissioner in Canada.

This prompted a surprised Johnston to launch a flurry of inquiries to see if any offence had in fact been caused -- but he concluded it had not.

"Newfoundland is not a province whose inhabitants have any inhibitions about making their views known and I feel sure we would have heard... if there was any substance in all this," he wrote back, proposing no further action.

The exchanges -- which total 42 pages of documents -- did not stop there, though.

In August 1978, journalist Gordon Winter, who was planning to visit the trail, offered to take a letter from Callaghan to Newfoundland officials, and he enthusiastically agreed.

Callaghan wrote to Newfoundland premier Frank Moores expressing regret he had been unable to visit but adding he was determined to do so as soon as possible.

Winter returned from Canada in October and brought back with him an invitation for Callaghan to stay at Government House in St John's.

From there, it would be a "fairly easy" flight and hour-and-a-half drive to reach the park, plus six hours to get up and down the mountain, a distance of 14 kilometres, Winter said.

Callaghan wrote back to Winter: "I look forward very much to visiting the trail at the first chance I have, but at the moment I cannot see an opening.

"When I do, I shall seize it with alacrity."

The tale emerged in documents released by the National Archives in London under British laws which allow secret files to be declassified after 30 years.