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regarded as specifically for additional units to be withdrawn from Germany. If it became known that preparations were in hand for accommodating larger
numbers than the one brigade and one RAF squadron which we were at present
seeking the agreement of our allies to withdraw, we should be accused of bad faith. If the camps were not required for further units withdrawn from Germany they would almost certainly be needed to accommodate the additional troops likely to be withdrawn from the Far East by 1970-71.
On the question of the purchase of houses for the families of the second brigade, concern was expressed that if we decided not to withdraw the brigade from Germany, or to withdraw it at a later date than 1st April 1968,
many of the houses might stand empty. It would therefore be advisable to
defer the purchase of about half the proposed houses for six months, when
the situation would be reviewed. Authority to purchase the remainder should
only be given if they were in locations certain to be required by the services
whether or not a second brigade were withdrawn from Germany.
This course
would, however, involve some risk that if it were decided in that event to
withdraw the second brigade this could not then be done as rapidly as had
been envisaged, and also that the current increase in the level of
construction work generally would lead to higher prices and slower completion of the further houses required. As with the single accommodation, we
should avoid linking the purchase of the houses to the possibility of further withdrawals from Germany.
THE PRIME MINISTER summing up the discussion said that, while in the forthcoming offset negotiations we would wish to avoid being unable through
lack of accommodation in the United Kingdom to make further withdrawals if a
satisfactory agreement could not be obtained, we should not now give any
indication that preparations for the accommodation of additional units
withdrawn from Germany were going ahead. These preparations should at this stage be limited to the rehabilitation of the camps and to the purchase of about half the houses required, at an estimated cost of £4 million, in locations where they would be required by the services if no further
withdrawals from Germany took place. The position should be reviewed in
six months' time.
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The Committee -
(1) Approved the purchase of 150 houses for families of the
Wessex squadron redeployed from Germany to the United Kingdom in 1968.
(2) Agreed that camps should now be prepared, at a cost of
£1.5 million, to accommodate a second brigade if one were withdrawn from Germany in 1968.
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