Reference HWB 10/9
Sir Morrice James
Please see Mr. Hall's minute of February 19th below, covering a draft letter for Lord Shepherd to send to Mr. Healey about the possibility of a small number of R.A. F. planes being stationed permanently in Hong Kong.
2.
Although I too share Mr. Hall's view that the
chances of success are remote, I agree with him that we ought to ensure that the political case is placed before Mr. Healey in the study that is now about to be made within the Ministry of Defence of the future size and composition of the Hong Kong Garrison. I accordingly recommend that Lord Shepherd should write to Mr. Healey as in the draft proposed, even though this is a fairly forlorne hope.
EM.
(A.N. Galsworthy)
19th February, 1968
Sir A. Galsworthy,
My own view, after studying these papers, is
that the case for deciding to station R.A.F. fighters
in Hong Kong permanently now has not been made out.
It may turn out that we ought to do so after the
withdrawal of our present air forces from Singapore
and Malaysia, or when the rundown of our forces
there is more advanced. Or it might become necessary
to send fighters to Hong Kong quickly if the Chinese
began the harassing tactics foreshadowed in
paragraph 5 of the Governor's Saving despatch No.709.
But for the present pace the Governor
have thought we ought to rely on the existing
arrangement, viz. that aircraft based on Singapore
should visit Hong Kong periodically. As the Chiefs
of Staff recognise (see paragraph 2 of Mr. Mayne's
letter of 9th February) there may be over-riding
political reasons for deploying fighters to Hong
Kong from time to time, but with great respect I
question whether these reasons exist at the moment.
/2.
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I should