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Mr Corter
Mr. Hell
Hong Kong: Evacuation
a proposol
The Commander-in-Chief, Far East, has put forward
Jor
for approval by Chiefs of Staff the preparation of a
contingency plan for a very limited evacuation from Hong
Kong of those who would be particularly vulnerable to
Chinese retaliation or pressures.
The plan would cover
specialist intelligence personnel, certain members of the
Police Force (particularly Special Branch) and loyal Chinese
prominently identified with the British connection.
proposal has the agreement of the Governor.
The
2.
I recommend that the proposal be approved.
3. Evacuation plans for Hong Kong date back to the early
1950s. They are out-of-date and useless in present
circumstances. We consider, in any case, that only a very
limited evacuation is realistic or practicable today.
4. When the plan came up for revision in 1963-64, the
Governor, supported by Chiefs of Staff, argued strongly that
a general evacuation was totally unrealistic and that an
evacuation limited to non-Chinese elements of the population
was morally indefensible, undesirable and, in most
circumstances, impracticable.
To attempt an evacuation
before or after the onset of hostile Chinese action would
have a rapid and disastrous effect on public and police
morale in Hong Kong and lead immediately to a serious
internal security situation which our Security Forces would
not be able to contain; in these circumstances, the
Security Forces would be inadequate to cover an evacuation.
China has the capacity to bring overwhelming military force
to bear on Hong Kong and therefore to make any evacuation
impossible after it had taken a decision to take over the
it would be folly in these circumstances to attempt
Colony;
evacuation.
15. Furthermore,
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