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guns of these Chinese craft. Our view has been that we need a Royal Navy ship with sufficient speed and fire power to ensure, so far as this is possible and economical, that it can arrive with reasonable speed at the scene of any incident and discourage any unduly offensive action by Chinese vessels with speed and fire power superior to the RN patrol vessels and the Police vessels.
Without prejudice to the question of whether or not the Hong Kong Government should be expected to meet the cost of replacing HMS Chichester, we would appreciate advice as to whether HMS Mermaid, which, it has been suggested, should be refitted for service in Hong Kong, is the most effective and economical ship available to meet the threat at sea, to act as a deterrent to any Chinese gunboat and to give support to the Marine Police. It would be helpful
if the advice included an assessment of the waters in which she would be able to operate, bearing in mind her draught, as compared with HMS Chichester or any other possible alternative ship.
We should be glad to have some details as to how the estimate of £2.4 m. for the refit of Mermaid is made up. Does it represent the minimum expenditure necessary to make this ship suitable for the Hong Kong Squadron? For how long after the refit has been completed would Mermaid remain fully operational? We shall have difficulty in convincing un-officials that any part of the cost of the refit is properly a charge on Hong Kong. However, if it is possible to say that the refit is required because there is no other ship in the Navy suitable for Hong Kong's requirements, this might make it somewhat easier to present the case to them for Hong Kong meeting some of the cost.
We should like to explore the possibility that the refit might be undertaken in Hong Kong. I have so far made no local enquiries about this.
Before doing so, I would like confirmation that there is no objection in principle to the refit being undertaken here, that any special equipment from overseas required to be incorporated in the ship could be made available and that supervision of it would present no problem.
I recall that there was a suggestion, in our discussions, that during the refit HMS Mermaid's main armament was to be replaced. We should like to know whether this is necessary to provide her with armament particularly suited to her role in Hong Kong.
Turning now to the patrol vessels, their eventual replacement, and their interrelationship with the frigate. I believe that the present number of five patrol vessels was dictated by the desirability, in emergency, of having one patrol vessel in each of the 4 Marine Police
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