CONFIDENTIAL
4.
X1) A sum of £173,340 for the cost of
materials (including the cost of their
transport from Singapore to Hong Kong)
barbed wire)
for the erection of a bedor fence within Hong Kong territory parallel to, but along the Hong Kong/China frontier and
a little way south of the actual border
line.
(2) The sum of £20,691 being the cost of
stores provided for additional works
services on the border under a military
operation known as "Highland Bønnet",
BORDER FENCE
The circumstances in which this fence came to be
built and the purpose that it was intended to
serve are described in Hong Kong/telegram No 1320
of 29 August 1967 (copy attached).
The Ministry
of Defence made it clear to the Commonwealth Office
in 1967 that they would expect defence votes to
be reimbursed for any expenditure incurred by
them in connection with the project. And in
October 1967, the Commonwealth office acknowledged
that such expenditure was not a proper charge on
defence votes since the fence was in the nature
"
of an immigration/control measure (see attached
copy of letter dated 4 October 1967 from Hall to Cass
This vieny CASIS).
is held to be incorrect by those dealing
5. It is clear from the last sentence of Hong
Kong telegram No 1320 that the Hong Kong Government
have always maintained that the cost of the fence
is not a charge which they should be expected to
meet In support of the Hong Kong case, the
IN
E
C
(in the FCO) with the matter, some
directly
of whom were in withred in Hongking at the time, for the
readers
below!
set out
CONFIDENTIAL
/Foreign
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