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it is likely to be financially disadvantageous to the MOD to the tune of perhaps £10m a year from the time the battalion is brought back until June 1997. On the other hand, the Hong Kong government may force us into paying some or all of these costs by simply setting limits on the amount of money they are prepared to pay under the DCA.
10. In the end it may come down to a choice between being helpful to Mr Patten and accepting the near certainty of extra costs on the defence budget; or proceeding as originally planned in the knowledge that we may in any event be forced into additional expenditure if Mr Patten insists that the financial consequences of meeting the DCA costs of a militarily viable garrison are too much for the Hong Kong domestic political market to bear.
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