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CONFIDENTIAL
BACKGROUND NOTE
PQ 1775 B
Force Levels
1.
At present the Hong Kong garrison consists of:
RN
1 frigate
5 patrol craft
Army 2 UK Infantry Battalions
RAF
3 Gurkha Infantry battalions
1 Artillery Regiment
1 Armoured Reconnaissance Squadron
1 Gurkha Field Squadron
8 Wessex helicopters
The Defence Review proposal is that the garrison should be
reduced by, one major unit, 2 patrol craft and certain support
facilities.
Role of the British Forces
2. As Hong Kong is a Colony HMG is responsible for its
external defence and internal security.
The garrison is maintained
in support of our commitments, though their internal security
role is the most important.
3. The security of Hong Kong can be threatened with or without support from Peking and in a recent assessment CBFHK stated that the threat might take the form of any or any combination of:
Internal unrest can
8.
Rioting and urban terrorism.
arise, as in the past, from circumstances largely unrelated
to the latent Chinese threat, eg dissatisfaction over
economic conditions, food shortage, political agitation etc. The potential IS situation which the security forces would now have to cope with is, if anything, more difficult than
CONFIDENTIAL