IN CONFIDENCE
Saturday 10th July
VISIT TO FIRST BATTALION SCOTS GUARDS AT STANLEY
The Committee spent the morning visiting the First Battalion Scots Guards (1SG) at Stanley, on the south coast of Hong Kong Island. A tour of the unit's facilities, drinks in the sergeants' mess and lunch in the officers' mess enabled informal contacts to be made with soldiers of all ranks and their families.
1SG were transferred from Belfast to Hong Kong at the start of 1982. They have an area responsibility in Hong Kong Island both for internal security and deterring external aggression. As well as doing regular six week tours of border duty, they have been able to improve their conventional capabilities, which had become rather rusty during their tour of Northern Ireland, by training exercises in Singapore and Brunei.
Border duty was described as a task for which it was sometimes difficult to motivate soldiers on account of the natural sympathy for the illegal immigrants (IIs) that it evoked. 148 had been caught during the ISG's first tour, however, mainly by regular patrolling of the border fence at night. IIs had not generally offered violence and the military's role upon detaining them was to hand them over to the police after a short interview.
The maintenance of good relations with the local commu- nity was obviously given special attention. Youth groups and hospitals were special targets for fund-raising projects, Scots pipes and drums entertained Chinese audiences whenever possible, and a ISG crew had participated in the famous dragon boat race.
The
The unit's equipment was described as satisfactory, although Clansman was being awaited with slight impatience since it had originally been promised some years earlier. only equipment of special local application was anti-riot gear. In the tropical climate, equipment maintenance was more demanding than elsewhere, but regular inspections were made and the cost of maintenance was borne by the Hong Kong Government.
Family life in the battalion seemed to be of mixed quality, with the unit accommodated in a variety of locations. Only in January 1983, when new accommodation currently being built is complete would the whole unit be housed in or near Stanley. Many wives found difficulty in adjusting to the Hong Kong environment and, with relatives in England so far away, the role of SSAFA and the Families Officer was said to be much more important than in Germany, say. SSAFA was the subject of much praise, but many wives to whom we talked felt that the regiment was not doing enough to make their stay in Hong Kong a smooth one. Some found the cost of service accommodation high and there were frequent, almost universal, complaints about the costs of air-conditioning (in quarters designed for its use) and of running a car in Hong Kong (where car tax is so prohibitively high that only four men in the battalion own one).