CONFIDENTIAL UNTIL ISSUED
Hong Kong
HONG KONG DEFENCE COSTS AGREEMENT PRESS STATEMENT
494
1.
Yesterday in London, the Minister of State for Defence,
the Rt. Hon. William Rogers, M.P., and the Governor, Sir Murray
MacLehose, signed a new Defence Costs Agreement.
2.
This new
Agreement will succeed the present 5 year Agreement which
expires on 31st March, 1976. It has been signed following a
protracted series of negotiations in Hong Kong and London over
the past few months in which Mr. Rogers has led for the United
Kingdom Government and the Governor has led the Hong Kong team.
The new Agreement reaffirms HMG's commitment to the
security and integrity of Hong Kong and stipulates the size of
the agreed garrison, which will be smaller than in the past but
which will be reinforced should circumstances so require. The
garrison will in future include four Infantry Battalions (three
of them Gurkha), a Gurkha Engineering Squadron, five naval
patrol craft and an RAF helicopter squadron. At current prices
the cost will be £421M a year, which is some £20M less than the
present garrison. The Hong Kong Government will meet 50% of
the cost of the garrison in the first year of the new Agreement
(1976/77), 621% in the second year and 75% in the third and
succeeding years, compared with a contribution in the current
financial year of about £11M under the present Agreement. The
new Agreement will run for seven years initially and will be
renewed for further periods of five years on the same terms
unless either Government wishes to vary them.
.../2.