CECRET
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1
Telephone 01- 930 8440 Xn 632
L M Davies Esq CMG OBE Secretary for Security Colonial Secretariat Hong Kong
Your reference
Our reference HKK10/1
Date 21 March 1975
RIF
60
122)
COLONIAL DEFENCE CONTRIBUTIONS
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RCF.
1. I am sorry it has taken us some time to produce a substantive reply to your letter of 8 February, about colonial defence contributions.
2. Our understanding pending further research (which is not quite such a simple matter as one might think) is that the Gold Coast arrangement referred to in your letter was related to the position of the Royal West African Frontier Force (RWAFF). As you may know, the Gold Coast Regiment of the RWAFF, along with the Regiments from the other West African colonies, was brought under War Office command during the 1939-45 war, and greatly expanded for participation in the Abyssinian and Burma campaigns as well as its basic role of standing guard against a possible enemy thrust through Vichy French West Africa.
3. After the war, by special arrangements, the RUAFF remained for some years under War Office control. In consequence, its whole cost was provided for (in the first instance) on UK Defence Votes. However, since it was regarded as unreasonable that the UK should bear the whole final charge for troops raised and stationed in West Africa, which had a local as well as an Imperial role, it was agreed that the Colonial Governments concerned should make a financial contribution, which was taken as an appropriation-in-aid of our Defence Votes. principle of this arrangement was settled at a special conference in London soon after the war, attended by representatives of the West African Governments concerned. The reafter, the amount of each Colony's contribution was assessed from time to time by negotiation, taking into account total expenditure budgeted each year for the RWAFF. The precise basis of calculation each year is not available without research into old Colonial Office files (possibly old Ministry of Defence files too), and the actual figures for any one Colony for any one year would not be very significant if abstracted from published sources (as your telegram number 214 suggests) out of context.
The
The above arrangements were brought to an end before independence, in order to enable each West African Government to assume full responsibility for its locally-raised military forces in the run-up to independence. They naturally became financially responsible at the same time, subject to such assistance as continued to be provided from home through the secondment of British officers etc.
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