NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
W(B)L 51-7406
This Manim
sought explain at our meeting
order that
we ca
effect
visit theat
aspects of the Colony's administration, in in a moten of this importance)
та тейи
practice the use of this power against the
wishes of the unofficial members of the
Executive and Legislative Councils could lead
to a very serious political and internal
security situation in the Colony which would
benefit neither Hong Kong nor HMG. Whatever
our views may be as to the adequacy or otherwis
of a contribution by Hong Kong of £8 million,
there is no doubt whatever that in Hong Kong
eyes such a contribution would be a very
realistic one indeed, particularly if the
garrison is to remain at its present strength
of 63 major Army units.
5. For these reasons alone we must rely very
heavily on the Governor's own assessment of
what he can persuade his advisers to accept.
He was very largely instrumental in achieving
a settlement of the current contribution and we balian that we
can safely rely on him to do his best for us
again.
6.
and
Accordingly, we should prefer to vary the
approach to him as set out in your draft letter
for convenience I enclose a revised draft
(based on your original draft and taking into
account the comments of Goldsmith and Gedling)
which I hope that you can accept. If the
draft (or something approaching it) is not
acceptable I suggest we should have a further
(Mmson and
meeting. As you may know, I shall be visiting
Hong Kong with Mr. Royle, our Parliamentary Mism has already left out I Under Secretary, early next month. We shall
be leaving London on 6 October. Any meeting
will, therefore, have to be arranged to take
place not later than 5 October.
/ 7.
...