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5. Our major difficulty is over the starting amount of the
contribution. I am sure you appreciate that in the context of
the public expenditure discussions here, and the particular
problems of the cost of Defence, Ministers will want to be
to expect.
(yet
satisfied that the amount offered is as much as it is reasonable
Yet your proposal, when account is taken of increased
costs, is not more than the share originally provided by the
present agreement. It is a long way short of meeting the object
that the Colony should pay for its own internal security In
the light of the relative prosperity of Hong Kong it would be
difficult to persuade Ministers who are under such severe pressure
on their own programmes, both civil and military, that the Colony
should not make a larger contribution.
6.
have
Before any submission is made to Ministers we therefore feel
it is incumbent upon us to ask you to look again at the offer you
made and to consider whether by any means the Colony's contribution
might be made more telling.
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