From:
CONFIDENTIA
M L HOWARD Secretariat(Overseas) (Commitments)
MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
Main Building Whitehall London SW1A 2HB
Telephone: (Direct Dialling) 01-218 6272
(Switchboard) 01-218 9000
M Hard Wo Miss Mesde 1710
Ms
Ian Wotherspoon Esq
Government Secretariat Lower Albert Road
Hong Kong
Dear lau
HONG KONG PATROL CRAFT
1.
Your reference
HKC 062/1 Our reference D/Sec(0)(C)/6/7 ;
Date
Mr Tunes M fi
3 September 1990
Greorgan
9/10.
ра
pa CAR
Thank you for your letter of 30 July to Richard Hatfield. As you can imagine, Richard is heavily tied up with the current crisis in the Gulf, and he has therefore asked me to reply.
2. On the first of your questions, it is not possible to be precise about the costs of the patrol craft, but you can safely assume that in the period 1992-1997, the total cost of running them would be in the region of £40m. Your second question is more difficult (and incidentally I assume you meant to ask whether the cash yield from the concession on the 1988 DCA would cover 35% of the operating costs, not the total). As Richard said, there are distinct limitations on the information available and we very much doubt whether any assessment we make would be more accurate than your own. I would be loath to pass figures of doubtful accuracy to you if they were to be decisive in your reaching a final view.
3. Finally, you should be under no illusion as to the pressure we are under to find savings in the defence budget. The fact that we are having to spend extra money on our operations in the Gulf will only serve to increase those pressures in other areas of expenditure. I hope therefore that we can soon reach an agreement which satisfy both our requirements. I should like to think that we will be in a position to do so when Terence Brack and his team come out to Hong Kong for the DCA talks in December.
+
FCO-HKD
2/10
Hidden copies to:
AUS (GF) Hd & RP(N) GFI-Miss Witlock
CONFIDENTIAL
Your
ever
Martin
5/10