SECRET
Draft Letter to Governor Hong Kong from FCO
Your proposals for the defence contribution by the Colony
after April 1971 have been discussed with the Ministry of Defence,
Treasury and MPBW.
2.
Although the extent of our Far East presence has not yet been
finally decided, we have felt it sensible to discuss your proposals
on the assumption of an Army garrison comprising 63 major units.
This follows from a recent assessment made by the Commander British
Forces Hong Kong, in consultation with you, that provided
a. the situation on the border remains reasonably stable
C.
the internal threat in Hong Kong does not significantly
increase, and
the strength of the Hong Kong police continues to expand,
the reinforcement time for an extra major unit could be extended
from 72 hours to 7 days. This has removed the requirement for
an extra unit to be stationed in the Colony as was previously
intended. The remainder of the garrison has been assumed to be
as shown in Annex A to my letter of 9 October 1969 except that
the RAF Whirlwinds were increased from 6 to 10 earlier this year.
The Annex to this letter shows the latest costing of the garrison
in 1971/72 and replaces the information we gave you in 1969.
3.
There are two points in relation to your proposal on which
we should be grateful for clarification:-
a.
Capital Works
You have suggested ear-marking a maximum of £2M per
annum for non-recurrent capital works to remain the
property of the Hong Kong Government and to be selected
from works which are agreed by them to be of potential
/value
STORET