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Mr Stuart
16
НКК
CONFIDENTIAL
Reference...
HKK !/..
归
EXPENDITURE IN SUPPORT OF FOREIGN POLICY
1. It has proved remarkably difficult to obtain figures for the cost of the various operations of HMG in Hong Kong. Neither Finance Department nor Personnel Policy Department have been able to give us a figure for the cost of running the Trade Commission, for example. No-one in the Office appears to know the cost of the DOE office or the Bcarfe office. We might just be able to get this information from the DOE (in Hastings!) and the DTI respectively, not I fear tonight. I think we are therefore thrown back on the figures in the Par Report.
2.
The Par Report shows the following expenditure of Whitehall departments on Hong Kong:-
FCO
£293,000
Ministry of Defence
£36,580,000
Other Whitehall departments
(mainly DOE)
£820,000
British Council (Mr Wilford's
figure not in Par)
£43,433
3.
FCO expenditure is thus relatively modest compared with that of other Whitehall Departments; it is a drop in the bucket compared with that of the MOD.
The latter,
however, is shown in terms of gross functional costs. Considered as "extra costs" the total comes to £25.6 m, from which must be deducted the Hong Kong contribution of £8m and the Brunei contribution of £1.3m, giving a net total of £16.3m. In passing it is worth pointing out that the MOD expenditure in Hong Kong alone is substant- ially greater than the total savings required by the Treasury on Overseas Services, even on the most pessimistic view. Since it is our declared policy that the Hong Kong Garrison is in the Colony solely for the Colony's benefit and since HMG on balance gets little out of Hong Kong, I cannot help thinking that these figures are dis-proportionate.
4.
IAD say that they have no figure for BBC expenditure in Hong Kong, and they doubt whether the BBC would have one either; they do not think that they break down their expenditure in this way. The main BBC operation in Hong Kong is the monitoring station, which supplies about half the material that goes into the daily "summary on world broadcasts" for the Far East. The other half comes
I
from the Americans in Okinawa. We are not a main consumer of the end product, and are not, I think, therefore able to suggest that it should be reduced. think that other departments, for example FED, IRD and Research Department, as well as many outside bodies find it very useful. Apart from this the BBC have of course their Far East correspondant based in Hong Kong. They also sell programmes to Radio Hong Kong. But these activities would not come within the scope of this exercise.