(118281) Dd. 391599 1,500M 2/69 Hw.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry
No.
RITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted. Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
DRAFT
To:-
www
Type 1 +
From
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
(DUS (F) 153/1)
In Leslie Monson's absence on leave I am
replying to your letter of 15 September ( 4015
about the Hong Kong defence contribuion.
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 summarily
with Monson's interventions and appears heavily
biased in favour of the views expressed both by your
own Ministry and the Treasury.
the points in paragraph 2 (a) to
Whilst we agreed that
(of the recot) (c) 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
seeking an overall increase in his £8 million figure,
Indeed, if you will look again at Monson's letter of
5 August (HKK 10/9), which puts the FCO view, you will
see that our view was that the Governor was certainly
right "in his judgement that this is the maximum he
could hope to secure and that he will have difficulty
in persuading his Executive Council to agree to this
Moreover, even the record of the meeting
figure.
does not suggest that there was any agreement to put
the suggestion to the Governor (as Gedl now proposes)
that if the Colony did not assume "a realistic share
/of