CONFIDENTIAL
The Governor's view seems to go somewhat further than this and, in effect, to call for involvement in the policy-making process. This is not of course a matter which the MOD is competent to judge and I thought it right, therefore, to bring this urgently to your attention to enable you to give consideration to the Governor's views and, I imagine, to include them as necessary in your Departmental briefing for your Secretary of State for next week's DOPC meeting on Brunei. I should be grateful to know your conclusions on this aspect. For our part, we shall include in the Defence Secretary's brief a statement simply to the effect that the Hong Kong Government apparently continue to attach importance to rapid reinforcement.
We shall be letting you see separately the lines on which we shall propose that CDS replies generally to CBFHK.
Copy to:
Your
Zani
Cousmi.
A M Simons, Esq, SEAD
W J A Wilberforce, Esq, Defence Department
CONFIDENTIAL