F
In other
따
LAN
Pierce's
Well
lekin
NOTHING TO BE Written IN THIS MARGIN
211 January
1974.
}
SECRET
PERSONAL
was to cope with a, possible influx of refugees. Wnds the Junce
Coslinked As-each, It was really in the nature of an anti-
illegal immigrant measure and indeed it is
described as such in paragraph 7 of Annex B to the
Hong Kong paper dated 19 December 1970, entitled
"Implementation of the Land Border Policy"
(I am
grading this letter 'secret' merely because of
this reference.)
M&D
19 Dot De
The Ministry of Defence will
certainly not agree to accept any part of its cost
as a charge against their vote and we feel bound to
share their view on this. Indeed we do not consider
it to be a proper charge against HMG at all and we
do not expect to get much sympathy from the Treasury
when we broach the subject with them.
6.
At the same time, regardless of the above
comments and of what your own views may be on the sub-
ject, we are only too conscious of the likely reaction
of your Finance Committee to any application for
the necessary funds assuming that such an
application could not be avoided with which to
reimburse the military authorities. Coming so so on
after the conclusion of the recent negotiations
over the defence contribution, any such request
would, we assume, encounter the most jaundiced
reactions from the members of that Committee.
7. Work on Border Posts (Operation "Highland Bonnet")
The second of the outstanding items involves a
Suvises
sum of £20,691 spent by the military authorities
on stores required for refurbishing certain border
posts in connection with the 1967 disturbances.
tem
This matter has been the subject of correspondence
between Hong Kong and ourselves ending in
3.
SECRET & PERSONAL
/Jeaffreson's