allo
/
Reference....
S.J.
11
Flaq
A
43
the Gooner might riposte
that
(44)
Mr. Carter
Attached is the draft of a letter on the subject of the future Hong Kong defence contribution which, it is suggested, should be sent to the Governor by Sir Leslie Monson.
2. The background to the preparation of the draft is given in the attached submission dated 30 July. The submission was designed as a brief for a meeting which took place on the following day with representatives of the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury. At that meeting it was agreed that a letter should be written to the Governor as the first step in soundings at the official level towards the negotiation of a new defence agreement with Hong Kong. Since then we have exchanged drafts and redrafts with the Ministry of Defence and the draft attached to this minute is, subject to what follows, acceptable both to the Ministry of Defence and to ourselves.
13. We would have preferred to omit (X) of the draft but the Ministry of Defence are keen that it should remain. Their argument is that since it is the Governor who raises the difficulty of the notional division of the garrison between internal security forces and external defence forces, it should be pointed out to him that any concept of the problem which does not distinguish between internal security and other forces leads to the conclusion that the Colony's defence contribution should be related to the costs of the whole garrison. The truth of the matter is, of course, that Hong Kong's internal security problems are mainly due to external pressures and I should have thought that for this reason, if Hong Kong's contribution is to be related to the costs of the entire garrison, then that contribution should only represent a very small proportion of the total cost. However, the point hardly seems worth arguing about at this stage and I suggest that we should agree to the retention in the draft of the passage in question.
14. We told the Governor at the end of July that Sir
Leslie Monson hoped to write to him on this subject at the end of August. Unfortunately it has taken two months to clear the draft with the Ministry of Defence (who in their turn also consulted the Treasury). The Governor will very likely raise this matter with us when he comes to London for discussions in November and it is therefore important that the letter should reach him before his departure from Hong Kong on leave on 13 October. This means that the letter must catch the Hong Kong bag which leaves on 9 October (arriving Hong Kong on 11 October). The matter is therefore of some urgency.
Mr. Well
helford
(A. W. Gaminara)
8 October 1969
S
Too Think
we can wear X in
para 5 (to which the Mod seem so attached)