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Sir L Ronson .

Mr Loyan

Mr Renick

HONG KONG

16.

DEFENCE CONTRIBUTION

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ince

to issue

JG

1. The attached memorandum by the Secretary of State was

considered by the Defence and Oversea Policy Committee at its

meeting on 23 July.

2. In paragraph 8 of the memorandum the Secretary of State

had recommended that the Governor of Hong Kong be authorised

to attempt to settle the issue of the defence contribution on

the basis of Annex I to the memorandum (ie on terms which had

been advocated by the Governor).

However, the Committee

decided that the Governor should be instructed to endeavour to

secure settlement on the basis of Annex II to the memorandum.

FCO telegram No 553 instructed the Governor to proceed

accordingly.

3. In his reply (Hong Kong telegram No 528) the Governor

expressed disappointment that his recommendations had been

rejected and asked for clarification of certain points before

he proceeded to carry out the instructions sent to him.

Before we had had time to reply to this telegram, the Governor sent a further telegram (Hong Kong telegram No 549) from which

it appears that he is most reluctant to act on the Defence

and Oversea Policy Committee's decision and is still seeking

to persuade Ministers to adopt his own recommendations.

4.

The Governor has made it quite clear:

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