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ANNEX A to DP Note 27/67(A) (Flimsy Draft)(Continued
5. The basic requirement of 73 major units as recommended by
the Commander-in-Chief is examined against two possible courses.
6.
Course A. An all British garrison increased by one
battalion to 7 major units, all of which will be unaccompanied
except for one battalion which will be accompanied.
The extra
one battalion to arrive in 1970, and the Gurkhas to rundown as
planned.
7.
Implications of Course A.
By 1970 we would have the following British units in
Hong Kong:
Unaccompanied
Accompanied
One armoured car squadron
One infantry battalion
One light regiment
Two infantry battalions
and this would be the position until 1972/73 when British
units start replacing Gurkhas.
To meet that deployment we would need to find from
our planned force levels:
(1) Three Armoured Car Squadrons (One Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment) to back the unaccompaniod
armoured car squadron in Hong Kong. We could provide
this backing from planned force levels but only at the expense of our capability to meet limited war/internal
security commitments. The alternative would be to
retain the armoured reconnaissance regiment which we
plan to disband in 1970.
(2) Three Light Regiments to back the unaccompanied
regiment in Hong Kong. There are only three complete
light regiments in our planned force levels which
could provide this backing, and they are all in
3 Division. To use them for Hong Kong would be at the expense of our capability to meet limited war/
internal security commitments.
The alternative would
A
2
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