3
(a)
The defence aspect.
(b) The commercial aspect, particularly from
the point of view of maintenance of the water supply
and of air communications, and of free access to the
harbours.
It might be necessary to bring in the Board of Trade later
for discussion of the commercial importance of Hong Kong
had to British trade but the present proposal/as yet hardly reached the stage when it was necessary to do this.
In
the first place he suggested that the representatives of the Defence Departments should say what importance they
attach to the maintenance of the New Territories as part
of the Colony.
It was agreed that the primary importance of
Hong Kong from the defence aspect was as a naval base.
Major Grover said that he felt it was impossible to say
precisely what we should gain by extending the lease of
the New Territories, as conditions of warfare change so quickly that any calculation made now might be completely
out-of-date by 1997, when the lease of the New Territories
would expire. He felt that we should on the whole gain
by extending the period of our lease but that there was
no need for us to worry about this point at the moment.
Captain Bourne said that from the military
point of view it was essential to keep the present New
Territories as British territory, in spite of the recent
C.I.D. decision to restrict the scale of our defence in
Hong Kong. That decision was expressly said to be on a
temporary basis and subject to constant review and from
the military point of view he had no doubt that the
maintenance of British control of the New Territories was
essential.
2.
Mr. Compton