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tactfully exploit this difficulty to discourage the Committee from pressing this suggestion.
Masirah. Like Diego Garcia, Masirah can only be reached by Service transport, though the distances involved are much smaller.. The DIS are not too keen to have a party of MPs asking possibly embarrassing questions about the activities of Masirah, but in general the objections to a visit there are less strong than to the foregoing two places.
May I suggest that subject to the views of other addressees you might reply to the Clerk pointing out that the visits to Singapore and Diego Garcia will raise a number of problems. In the former the forces stationed there will be at the height of activity connected with the withdrawal decided as part of the Defence Review, a large part of which is scheduled to be completed by the end of 1975. In order to allow them to con- centrate on this very complex operation, the Chiefs of Staff have imposed severe restrictions on visits by MOD personnel during this period to avoid distracting the efforts of those stationed there from the main objective.
4. Diego Garcia cannot be reached by civil airline, and it would be necessary for a military aircraft to be provided to transport the Sub-Committee. The air transport fleet, which is itself being severely reduced, will be heavily committed to the withdrawals from Singapore and elsewhere. Perhaps you could, without being too impertinent, also make the point that the Expenditure Committee will no doubt wish these resources to be used to the full for this purpose so that the Defence Review savings can be realised as planned.
8 April 1975
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H J BLANKS Head of DS 11 MB7358 3107M3