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MALTA
SECRET
SECRET
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(Previous Reference: OPD(67) 4th Meeting, Item 1)
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER said that, at the Prime Minister's request, he had the previous evening discussed with the Commonwealth
Secretary and Defence Secretary their proposal that instructions should
be sent to the newly arrived United Kingdom High Commissioner in Malta
authorising him to propose to the Maltese Prime Minister, Dr. Borg Olivier,
negotiations on a series of proposals for resolving the present situation
in Malta. It was envisaged that these would include measures for mitigating
the effects on the Maltese economy but also some rephasing of our run
down of forces within the planned four year period. Part of the
agreement would be that the Maltese should discontinue legislative action to repeal their Visiting Forces Act (which governed the status and privileges of our forces in Malta) and should cease the present
harassment of our forces. He was himself opposed to any negotiations on
the rephasing of the defence run down; partly on account of the political
consequences if Ministers were seen to make a fresh offer to the
Government of Malta after having placed before then, with the authority
of the Cabinet, proposals which were described as final, but nore
particularly because, see it would be obvious that any rephasing had
rogard more to local social and economic than to military considerations
AND and to our own requirements. Embarrassing repercussions in other areas
A where we planned to run down our forces, such as Cyprus, Aden and
Singapore, would be likely. He had therefore taken the view that the
question should be referred to the Committee for decision; if, however,
his colleagues were disposed to agree to an offer to the Government of
Malta on the lines proposed by the Defence and Commonwealth Secretaries
he would not wish to press the matter further.
THE DEFENCE SECRETARY said that, with some reluctance, he supported
the making of an offer to Dr. Olivier which would include a rophasing of
the run down of our forces. It was a principle of the defence review
that withdrawals of our forces should be orderly; and the situation in
Malta was now such that there was a real risk of a far from orderly
withdrawal. If the Maltese legislature passed on Wednesday the Bill to
repeal the Visiting Forces Act, there might well be a general strike and
other developments that would make it impossible for our forces to stay
in the island. If it became clear that Maltese labour was being withdrawn
we should have to send out to Malta specialist servicemen to replace the
withdrawn labour and possibly a further infantry battalion for internal
security duties. There would be a risk of our being involved in using a
measure of force, e.g. at road blocks, in order to secure our withdrawal,
and we might well have to leave behind very substantial defence stores.
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SECRET
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