NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
W(B)L 51-7406
TOP SECRET
Flag D
The eurent plan was
===
info of date when Aminlere derided in
to suspend
1967 and suct planning
(OPD) (67). 40m
Meeting)
of Ships Order, 1955) which took power to
requisition British ships wherever they might
be, for the same purpose.
4. The definition of "British ships" as pro-
vided in the Order excluded ships registered in
the independent countries of the Commonwealth
and those countries were individually named in
the Order. During the period 1955/58 the inde-
berritories the Gold Coat pendent countries of Ghana and the Federation
bom achieved independence
of Malaya came into being and in 1958 the Order
A
was amended (by the Requisitioning of Ships
(Amendment) Order, 1958) to take account of
this fact. Neither the 1955 Order nor the
amending Order of 1958 was ever published or
brought into force:
Orders
they both were and still
both
are held in readiness against the occurrence of
an emergency in Hong Kong.
5.
The Orders have again become out of date
by reason of the fact that a number of other
Commonwealth territories have achieved indepen-
dence since 1958 and the Orders could not be
published or brought into force in their present
form.
6. The powers to requisition shipping were an
form.... integral part of the plans for the evacuation of
Hong Kong. At the same time that that plan was
drawn up,
it was envisaged that in the event of military Chinese/aggression against Hong Kong, the
Colony's garrison would fight a determined
"last ditch" rearguard action with the object
of gaining time for the evacuation plan to be
However, subsequent developments
carried out.
in the Far East and elsewhère led, at the
beginning of 1968, to the scrapping of the plan
for evacuating Hong Kong in an emergency and it
is unlikely that any substitute evacuation plan
/ will
TOP SECRET