SECRET
Sir D Watson
PS/Lord Goronwy-Roberts
PS
58
DEFENCE REVIEW: HONG KONG
1.
The
Hong Kong could not exist without its garrison. present force of 63 major units (battalions) is the most important British defence commitment outside the NATO area. The present garrison also means the continuance of the brigade of Gurkhas and reinforcement facilities including Gan and Masirah. Some reduction of the garrison is possible if it is regarded purely as an internal security force. This is sensible in present
circumstances.
2.
The key passage on Hong Kong in the Defence Review Steering Committee's report which is being submitted to Ministers reads: "The Hong Kong Government should be asked to meet the whole cost of such forces as they wished to see retained.".
Permanent Under-Secretary rejected this formulation, but the Treasury insisted. There are two things wrong with it:-
(a)
The
The Governor of Hong Kong has advised that the way to persuade the Hong Kong Government to pay a larger proportion of the cost of the garrison, is for professionals to assess the size of garrison required for internal security, and then to tell Hong Kong what is needed, asking them to bear a larger proportion of the cost than at present, and citing financial stringency in the UK. If we simply told them they could have no more than they cared to pay for, this would be taken as an abdication of HMG's responsibility for Hong Kong and would meet with stubborn resistance.
(b) The military assessment is that internal security, and therefore stability in Hong Kong, could not be maintained with less than about 5 major units. There is no chance that Hong Kong would agree to pay for the whole of such a force. Even the Treasury agree with this and regard their present formula as an opening bid. It would be dangerous to allow the concept of a 100% contribution by Hong Kong to become the settled policy of HMG.
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