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New Paragraph 6 (old paragraph 5)
6. Essential features of planning and evacuation in these numbers are
set out below:
(a) Priorities must be drawn up; the following are suggested:
(i) those who must be evacuated for reasons of Britain's national
security;
(ii) those who would be at greatest personal risk in the event of
a Communist takeover, whatever their race of nationality (e.g. it might include a few Americans). This category would include persons whom the Chinese would particularly want to interrogate, such as senior members of Special Branch. The great majority in this category would be persons of Chinese race, both British subjects and albens,
(iii) remaining British and Commonwealth nationals, including
dependants of the three Services;
(iv) remaining British subjects of Chinese race;
(v) foreign consular officials and their families (other than
those covered in (ii) above)
(vi) others who wish to leave.
Dependants would be evacuated with persons in categories (i) and (ii); in the case of categories (iii), (iv), (v) it would be a matter of women and children first.
New Paragraph 7 (old paragraph 6)
Amend reference in first sentance to read "RAF Air Support Command"
Delete last sentence and substitute:
If there were a period of serious disturbances before the situation deteriorated to the point at which emergency evacuation was thought necessary, it is likely that the United States would have warships, probably including one or more aircraft carriers, either standing close by or at Hong Kong in the case of need.
This would increase the numbers
of people whom we might expect to be able to evacuate. On the other
hand, knowledge of the presence or proximity of such ships might cause
the public in Hong Kong to put two and two together and thus hasten loss
of confidence. Some other Governments might have ships standing by for
evacuation purposes, but this is less certain. In an emergency, use
of both the harbour and the airport would be subject to severe limitations, for a variety of reasons (see paragraph 10).
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