Mr Burns
PS/Lord Caithness
PS/Mr Lennox-Boyd
161
Miss
oogleb
CONFIDENTIAL COVERING SECRET
Hicc 062 is
.08.1990
From: RJ Codrington, SAD
Date: 11 October 1990
1918
( cc:
in "llo Miss Marsden
Mr Fushers
MR.Stone (or) 110 Pa
THE FUTURE OF THE GURKHAS
Mr McLaren
Mr Goulden
Mr Paul, HKD
Mr Gomersall, Sec Pol
Mr Colvin, SEAD
Problem
1. We should put down a marker with the Ministry of Defence
about the future of the Gurkhas, with special reference to their role in Hong Kong.
A
Recommendation
2.
I recommend that Mr Lennox-Boyd should write to
Mr Hamilton, and submit a draft. HKD concur.
Background
3. The Governor of Hong Kong's concerns about the need to maintain morale of the Gurkhas in Hong Kong were set out in Mr Paul's submission of 13 July. Ministers agreed to
the Governor's request that a letter should be sent to the
MOD, but decided that it should issue from the Minister
responsible for Nepal, rather than Hong Kong, and deal with the future of the Gurkhas within the British Army as a
whole.
B
C
4.
The Prime Minister had given the Governor an assurance at their meeting on 28 June (extract of record attached). But in his reply to a question about the Gurkhas during his statement to the House on 25 July about Options for Change, Mr King confined himself to saying only that he was aware of
SL3ACQ/1
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