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Part I to COS 20th Meeting/68 20th March 1968
RESTRICTED
1.
MR F. COOPER
SIR CHARLES ELWORTHY said that on behalf of the Committee he would like to say how much they welcomed the promotion of Mr Cooper to be Deputy Under-Secretary (Policy). They looked forward to his continued attendance at their meetings.
The Committee:
Warmly endorsed the remarks of the Chief of the Defence Staff.
2.
FUTURE DEFENCE POLICY
THE HONG KONG GARRISON
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94 (Previous Reference:
COS 16th Meeting/68, Minute 1 E)
The Committee had before them a paper (1) on the future size of the Hong Kong Garrison.
SIR CHARLES ELWORTHY said that he would like to congratulate the Defence Policy Staff on the paper which was well laid out and well argued. A large number of amendments had been proposed, many of which could have been introduced into the paper at staff level at an earlier stage. There could well be opposition to the force levels proposed because Ministers had agreed in 1967 that the Garrison in Hong Kong should be 5 major units with a very small naval force and no air forces. Since then the troubles had occurred and it had been necessary to reinforce Hong Kong and the implementation of this decision had therefore been deferred. The size of the proposed Garrison was again bound to be scrutinised against a background of financial stringency. However, he considered that the paper fully argued the necessity for the force levels proposed but he was concerned at the lack of justification for the stated requirement to reinforce the Garrison up to a total of 103 major units in the event of serious trouble. He considered that this was an arbitrary figure arrived at to meet a particular threat; it was not possible to specify the scriousness of situations which might arise or, therefore, the degree of reinforce- ment which might be required.
In discussion on the question of whether cost of some of the proposed increases, such as that for the fighters and MCMVs, might be borne by the Hong Kong Government, MR HALL (Commonwealth Office) said that the Colonial Secretary had had to make two visits to the Colony to obtain agreement on the question of costs. The Hong Kong Government had agreed to pay £4.5 million per year plus the cost of some local services for the period up until March 1971. He thought the Hong Kong Government would be unlikely to agree to incrcase their contribution before that date and he also thought it too early to open Note:
1. DP 9/68 (Final).
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