CC
CONFIDENTIAL
ENTIAL
BACKGROUND NOTE
PQ 1775B
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 (Engineers)
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 its internal security role is
the most important. The cost of maintaining internal security is
normally expected to be borne by a Colonial Government which is
also expected to contribute towards external defence costs if it
could afford to do so.
3. The security of Hong Kong can be threatened with or without
support from Poking and in a recent assessment CBFHK stated that
the threat might take the form of any or any combination of:
Rioting and urban terrorism. Internal unrest can
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
CONST DEWITAL