E.R.
TOP SECRET
COMMONWEALTH SECRETARY
Ministerial Committee on Hong Kong
40
Monday, 24th July 1967
(51)
(49
This is the first meeting of your new Committee, which was set up following the discussion of the situation in Hong Kong in the Defence and Oversea Policy Committee (OPD(67) 20th Meeting). All members will be present except for Mr. Jay and Mr. Mulley for whom Lord Walston and Mr. Rodgers will
deputise.
Interim Report by Officials - K(67) 2
This report has been produced by a working party, under the chairmanship of the Deputy Secretary of the Cabinet, on which all the Departments represented on the Ministerial Committee with the addition of the Department of Economic Affairs were represented. In view, however, of the sensitive nature of the subject, knowledge of this paper and of the fact that it has been under preparation has been limited to a fairly small circle.
The report considers the prospects for withdrawal from Hong Kong if it were suddenly forced upon us. In accordance with the Defence and Oversea Policy Committee's conclusion, officials will be later putting forward a report on our policy towards Hong Kong in the long-term, against the background that we cannot rely on remaining in the Colony on present terms
until the lease of the New Territories lapses in 1997.
The object of the present report is to deal with the possibility that the situation will deteriorate suddenly. This could happen either through the local situation getting out of control, or because the Chinese Government
decided to intervene and turn us out. This latter possibility is not
considered likely.
The report concludes that in the event of a deteriorating situation, we could not organise an orderly withdrawal, since this would require Chinese acquiescence which we could not expect in the circumstances. We should
then be faced with either an emergency evacuation or the need to make concessions to the communists similar to those which the Portuguese have
had to make in Macao. What this would involve is covered in the annex to the paper, and the report concludes that a Macao-type situation would be quite unacceptable.
An emergency evacuation would, however, present formidable problems in view of the numbers of people we would be responsible for evacuating. Nevertheless we must plan to rescue all we can, and officials therefore propose that a small planning group should be established in the Commonwealth Office to prepare a plan urgently. Absolute secrecy is essential and this precludes consultation with the Hong Kong Government, except perhaps under cover of a visit by one or two members of the planning group to the Colony, where they would talk only to the Acting Governor and the Commander British Forces. X
-1-