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Mr Wilford,
Wilford/
Sir L Monson
Mr Logan
SECRET
Agreco. A.R.
The Private Secretary
HONG KONG DEFENCE CONTRIBUTION
43
Secretary of State.
RECEIVED IN
REGISTRY No. 5 1
23 MAL,771
free d freed
она
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HKK10/9
The Secretary of State, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the
Defence Secretary and the Secretary of State for the Environment,
agreed in February that if the Governor of Hong Kong were able to
negotiate with his Executive and Legislative Councils an annual defence contribution of £8.5 million for the next five years, such
a contribution subject to certain conditions would be accepted by Her Majesty's Government.
ARGUMENT
2.
As expected, the Unofficial Members of the Executive Council
are most reluctant to agree to these proposals; and after a
preliminary discussion with the Governor and at his suggestion they set out their views in a Memorandum for submission to Her Majesty's
Government. The Governor has forwarded these representations to us with his comments (Hong Kong telegrams numbers 134 and 144), and the Unofficial Members now await HMG's reply.
3. There is nothing new in the arguments put forward by the Unofficial Members in favour of a token contribution only. Hong Kong can well afford to pay the £8.5 million a year suggested. It has accordingly been agreed at official level with the Treasury, the Ministry of Defence and the Department of the Environment, that the Unofficial Members of the Executive Council should be given no reason at all to believe that HMG would be prepared to accept any- thing less than the £8.5 million.
4.
The attached two telegrams have been drafted on this basis. One is the proposed reply to the Unofficial Members (in view of the possibility of a leakage to the press this has been confined to statements, which if made public, would not cause us undue
embarrassment);
the other contains guidance to the Governor.
SECRET