DRAFT DOP PAPER
Introduction
14
CONFIDENTIAL AL
THE FUTURE OF THE BRIGADE OF GURKHAS
As far as Parliament and the public are concerned, the position on the
future of the Gurkhas is as announced in the 1975 Defence White Paper,
which stated that the Brigade would be reduced from 7,000 to 6,000 by 1 April
1979. It also said that, subject to consultations with the Sultan, it
was proposed to withdraw a Gurkha battalion from Brunei and that these
consultations had began. Apart from this reference to the battalion in
Brunei, there was no comment on the number of battalions in the Brigade; however,
in a written answer on 25 May 1976, US of S (Army) stated that the reduction
of 1,000, as part of the manpower economies in the Army as a whole, would be
achieved by the amalgamation in the course of 1978 of the two battalions of
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Therefore, in parliamentary and public terms we are at present committed
both to a run down to 6,000 Gurkhas in the coming months and to "amalgamation
in the course of 1978". Because of the protracted nature of our consultations
with the Sultan of Brunei, our commitment to keep a Gurkha battalion in
Brunei continues and I have therefore been obliged to give approval to delay
the amalgamation until early 1979 and to maintain a little over 6,000
Gurkhas until about the third quarter of 1979, but neither of these decisions
has been made public.
2. The consequences of these planned reductions, the subsequent postponement
of their implementation, and the continuing uncertainty about the future
have caused difficulties both for the Ministry of Defence, and the Brigade
of Gurkhas itself. In particular, some reductions in strengths and recrcuiting