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Circulated 18/6/49@hoow
THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT
Page 262 pred for the Cabinet. June 1949 Page 262 of 366
The circulation of this paper has been strictly limited. It is issued for the personal use of Sir Norman Brook.
TOP SECRET
Copy No. 31
126
C.P. (49) 134
17th June, 1949.
CABINET
VISIT TO HONG KONG, 6TH JUNE-9TH JUNE, 1949
MEMORANDUM BY THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE
In view of the evident importance of possible developments in regard to Hong Kong, as the Chinese Liberation Armies sweep southwards, I decided, with the Prime Minister's approval, to pay a quick visit to the Colony during the Whitsun recess in order to confer on the spot with the local civil and military authorities and to inform myself by personal inspection about the circumstances. under which its defence might have to be conducted in the event of armed attack. I left London on 2nd June and reached Hong Kong on the evening of 6th June. The return flight began on the evening of 9th June and I was back in the United Kingdom on 14th June. The three Commanders-in-Chief, Far East, were in Hong Kong during my visit. Some account of the journey itself and of other problems studied at points en route is at Annex I, but in this report it is with Hong Kong alone that I am concerned.
2. The general background against which I had to study the problem of the defence of Hong Kong was provided by the Government's decision, which I announced in the House of Commons on 5th May, to send substantial reinforce- ments to the Colony and by the agreement in principle in the Cabinet on 26th May (C.M. (49) 38th Conclusions, Minute 3) to increase the size of the garrison still further, but not to announce this decision pending consultation with the other members of the Commonwealth and the United States. With such a strengthening of the garrison envisaged, and the expectation that the crisis might be reached in the late summer or early autumn, it was of particular importance for me to study the problem of the relations between the civil and military authorities in the Colony.
Instructions to the Governor
3. At a meeting of Ministers the night before my departure from London (Gen. 294/1st Meeting), this problem, to which attention had been drawn by the Governor himself in his signal No. 15 of 3rd May, was discussed. The problem. had been stated by the Governor in the following striking terms :—
Immigration control, registration of the population, compulsory mili- tary service and many of the elementary security measures which are in force in most States to-day would, to all intents and purposes, kill our trade in order to make the defence of its corpse more effective."
Ministers appreciated this dilemma and accepted a proposal, agreed to by the Chiefs of Staff, for its solution on the following lines: An overall Commander of all three Services in Hong Kong should be appointed; for the time being, at least, the Civil Governor's powers and functions should remain unimpaired, except that he should be given instructions that, in the event of a clash of opinion between
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