7448 D073840 200M 8/74 Cr.P.C. 839/3
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
SECRET
Registry
No. HKK 10/1
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
----In Confidence
DRAFT
To:-
L M Davies Esq CMG UBE Secretary for Security.
HONG KONG
Type 1 +
FROM
FL O'Keeffe
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
HKIOD
Suspend
2
rang
Mr Robson,
She said he and be
writing to me
today,
3
2/7
117 SIGNALS UNIT
1.
23 May Thank you for your letters of and 18 June.
2. We passed a copy of the first letter to MOD, pointing out that you were doing your best to meet the requirements (c) and (a) set out in my letter to you of 23 April and adding that (a) and (b) presented rather more difficulty. We have urged them to reconsider whether they can agree to meet the cost of continued RAF operation of the Unit for civil purposes until the end of March 1976; but, although we have not yet received a formal reply, you should know that they are currently sticking to the line that Hong Kong should
We expect a formal reply very shortly.
pay.
3. In the meantime, they have added confidentially that the main reason for the delay has been that the Americans have been considering whether they might, after all, continue to operate the Unit for their own purposes; in which case, if the Americans had already agreed to provide for your Civil Aviation Department's requirements, your problems about continued spares and maintenance support would have fallen away.
Unfortunately, however, NOD have just heard that the Americans have now declared that they have no further use for the Unit after all.
4.
I think this explains your difficulty in obtaining an authoritative statement from the Americans on the two questions set out in your letter of 18 June (though we should obviously be grateful if you would give the Consulate-General no
SECRET
/indication