TOP SECRET
Page
C.O.R. 46
"X-1.e. including
• other
advance parties signs of activity.
A.
SECRETARY OF STATE
HONG KONG GARRISON.
The Private Secretary of the Minister of Defence rang this morning to say that in your conversation with the Minister of Defence at the week-end you had agreed that the withdrawal of the Light Ack-Ack regiment from Hong Kong should go on because shipping had been ordered and everything organised, but you asked that no publicity should be given to this move until a decision had been taken about the final strength of the Hong Kong garrison. The idea was that, if it were agreed that the garrison should be kept at a strength of eight regiments, the replacement for the Light Ack-Ack Regiment could be announced when a formal announcement of its withdrawal was made. This agreement had been passed on to the War Office.
2. I reported my conversation to Campbell, who told me that this was not your understanding of the agreement you had reached with the Minister of Defence. According to Campbell, the Minister of Defence had agreed that there would be no withdrawal of the Light Ack-Ack Regiment from Hong Kong until the final strength of the garrison had been agreed at Defence Committee. I have passed this on to the Minister of Defence's Office.
3.
It is hoped to hold a Defence Committee in the very near future.
Page 21
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I have spoken to the Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Mr. Lawrence Wilson, about this, and have explained out point of view. He does not however know very much about it and has had no time to spare for Hong Kong as he is heavily engaged on the Defence White Paper and the Defence Estimates. He did not know what attitude his own Minister had in fact adopted.
2.
Following this, therefore, I spoke to the War Office, and General Stratton had given instructions which coincided with A above. Again, I drew their attention to the fact that we could not agree to any steps being taken which would lead to a crop of rumours springing up in Hong Kong about the withdrawal of this unit unless we could scotch such rumours by making an announcement about a replacing unit (if the Defence Committee decision is to the effect that no replacing unit will go to Hong Kong then of course we will have to keep silent, and hope for the best). In fact, however, I understand from the War Office that although shipping has been ordered and is on its way to Hong Kong it will not arrive there until March, and that in the meantime as the unit is not in the new territories but in Kowloon no considerable preparatory moves need take place at present. However, the War Office do say that they cannot stop personnel of the unit selling their cars and suchlike, and that in order to prepare for accommodation in this country the movement of about 20 to 30 people (out of 600) concerned with messing and accommodation here will have to take place. They propose to tell the local Commander that this should be done with no publicity, and to impress upon him the need to keep the move quiet.
3. I told the War Office that we would not object to this, but that no other preparatory move was to be made until the matter had been before Defence Committee. I was assured that they would abide by this, and I think that enough has been said on our side to ensure that if there is any change we will be told.
4. All of this is on the assumption that Defence Committee will be held next Wednesday and that following it we will have a definite decision out of them. This is most important to the War Office because this unit has been "mucked about" for a long time and it gets the War Office into bad odour and ultimately affects recruiting; and to Hong Kong who must know whether they are going to have 7 or 8 units in the long-term garrison, or whether they must prepare for the shock to public opinion if the 74th L.A.A. is withdrawn without any announce- ment being made about a replacement.
5. I have not the papers with me at present, but I believe a telegram has come in from Hong Kong about this unit, and it might be as well if Far Eastern Department sent a reply to it stating the present position.
281
attached
S.ofs.
Alaupall
(A. Campbell) 28th January, 1958