126
REPORT BY THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE ON HIS
VISIT TO HONG KONG JUNE 6th
9
JUNE 9th, 1949.
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 June 2nd and reached Hong Kong on the evening of June 6th. The return flight began on the evening of June 9th and I was back in the U.K. on June 14th. 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 on 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 reinforcements to the Colony and by the agreement in principle in the Cabinet on 30th May 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 tu study the problem of the relations between the Civil and Military authorities in the Colony.
3.
Instructions to the Governor.
3
At a meeting of Ministers the night before my departure from London, this problem to which attention had been drawn by the Governor himself in his Signal No. 15 of 3rd May, was discussed. problem had been stated by the Governor in the followin ̧ · striking terms:-
The
"Immigration control, registration of the population, compulsory military service and many of the elementary security measures which are in force in most States today would, to all intents and purposes, kill our trade in order to make the defence of its corpse more effective".
Ministers