W A ↑ Aves 199
1.6
Ministry of Defence
Main Building whitehall
CONFIDENTIAL
BRET
REF.
18)
BEXT
BEF.
233-4381
26
14 June 1977
HONG KONG: DELICE COOIE AURAIENT
1. You asked for comments on the proposed draft letter from the CL to the CBF, hong kong, attached to your minute L/DL6/46/66/1 of 1 June.
1 am
2. i assure that you will be looking at your draft again in the light of the discussions that I believe you had last week with the GBP also not entirelclear whether your draft takes full account of the latest state of play on the inter-departmental discussions about the Gurkha presence in Brunei. Subject to these qualifications, I would like to suggest you amend the first sentence of paragraph 2c of your draft to read as follows:-
"The Governor's wish to be consulted before any change is rede in the reinforcement capabilities (hong kong telegram no 50("of 17 Tay) has been taken into account in recent discussions about the future of the Brunei battalion"
i think the final sentence of the same paragraph should be recast and expanded as follows:-
"it had been envisaged that consultation with the Long Long Government would be limited to giving prior notice of the date of with- drawal from Brunei and discussions on its implications for liong Kong, including, if necessary, a detailed study of reinforcement options and stationed forced levels. it has become clear, however, that we shall need to keep the long kong Government informed of the progress of the Brunei negotiations both in the interest of L/long on, relations generally and the implementation of the Defence costs agreement in particular".
Brian Cousins' letter of 9 June under the same reference to John Stewart is relevant to this last amendment.
CONFIDENTIAL
DF Milton
Hong kong & General Dept