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SECRET
10
48
Горд.
2575
25 September, 1970.
br.
In Leslie Monson's absence on leave I am replying to your letter of 15 September (DUS(F)153/1) about the Hong Kong defence contribution.
2. By way of explanation of our views on the draft letter to the Governor enclosed in your letter I feel bound to say that the Ministry of Defence's record of our meeting on 7 September deals somewhat summerily with Monson's interventions and appears heavily to favour the views expressed both by representatives of your own Ministry and the Treasury. Whilst we agreed that the points in paragraph 2(a) to (c) of the record should be put to the Governor and that these could have the effect of ultimately producing a Hong Kong contribution in excess of £8 million, I do not recollect that we agreed to seek an overall increase in his £8 million figure. Indeed, if you will look again at Monson's letter of 5 August (HKX 10/9), which puts the FCO view, you will see that he saidthat the Governor was certainly right "in his judgement that this is the maximųɛ he could hope to secure and that he will have difficulty in persuading his Executive Council to agree to this figure.
Moreover, even the record of the meeting does not suggest that there was any agreement to put the suggestion to the Governor (as Gedling now proposes) that if the Colony did not assume "a realistic share of the cost of its internal security measures by the end of the period covered by the agreement" it might be necessary to reconsider the size of the garrison.
3. I think it is worth recalling also that our objective in proceeding as we have on this occasion, withthe Governor giving informally the best figure which he thinks he might be able to convinge his advisers to accept, was to prevent a repetition of the events of 1966. It is worth remembering that after visiting Hong Kong in 1966, for the express purpose of negotiating the present contribution, the then Secretary of State for the Colonies went on record as saying that "there was a very real possibility at one stage that unofficial members would feel obliged to tender their resignations. But fortunately and under the strong leadership of the Governor the majority of the unofficials accepted the need for an increase and evolved the offer to contribute £5 million a year for a period of four years,
As a result of a conti: uing clash of interests between HMG and the Hong Kong Government, mainly in the economic and commercial spheres, cur relations with the Colony are if anything worse today
/than
E.X. Gwynn, Esq., CB,
Ministry of Defence, SM1.
SECRET