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Mr. Wilford
2.
Please see Mr. Laird's minute to me of 23 December.
I attach the draft of a telegram which I propose to clear with the Treasury, Ministry of Defence and the Department of the Environment before despatching it to Hong Kong.
3. You have already seen Mr. Laird's personal telegram to the 106) Governor of 23 December and the Governor's reply of the 24
December. The attached draft is based on those two telegrams and on a letter from the Department of the Environment giving information about works costs.
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4. I have spoken to Mr. Smith of the Department of the Environment and he is going to put some more detail into paragraph 2 and possibly paragraph 3 of the draft telegram.
5. You will note that paragraph 5 of the attached draft latches on the Governor's suggestion in paragraph 5 of his telegram of 24 December about consultation with his Executive Council. This does involve the departure from the procedure originally agreed with other departments that we would try and reach agreement here on the level of defence contribution to be made by Hong Kong before authorising the Governor to negotiate the contribution with his unofficial advisers. However, we have not, as yet, succeeded in reaching agreement and I think that we must do all we can to enable the Governor to insert the necessary provision in his draft estimates for 1971/72. If he cannot do this, the matter is liable to cause even more controversy than it would otherwise create.
6. Since you will not be available after today, I am putting the attached draft to you now, before clearing it with other departments, to make sure that you agree with the general line proposed. Once you have generally approved the line taken in the draft, I shall clear it with the other departments as a matter of urgency and despatch it without delay.
(A. W. Gaminara)
30 December, 1970
Hong Kong Department
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Mi. 27/2