Copy to:
Commissioner-General,
Singapore.
Secretariat File
No: L.M.D.19/49.
No:
15.
TOP SECRET
f.e.
8
3
121 Emal with
940001/28
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG
Def
M. Sidebarcha
rol.
3
May, 1949.
Enclosure 1
Sir,
(Child. 6o Casier
on Quoo1/28/1)
no 1.
I have the honour to address you on the general question of defence preparations in Hong Kong. The recent crossing in strength of the River Yangtse by the regular forces of the Chinese Communist party lends point to matters which I had already decided should be brought to your attention without delay.
2.
I should first report that local defence planning in Hong Kong has for the last two months been in particular concerned with the volun- tary civilian effort which could in an emergency be harnessed in aid of the Services and the civil Government with particular reference to internal security.
3.
I had for some time been aware that over the whole field of security and defence we were planning to use voluntary civilian manpower for tasks so varied and so great that we were within reasonable danger of failure to carry out any of them effectively. Plans were in train for the use of volunteer civilian manpower in the following divers roles: the reinforcement of the regular police force with police reservists and special constabulary, the manning of small craft for patrolling the waters of the Colony, the provision of static guards and patrols for the protection of vital points and areas, the operation of fighter control radar equipment and of some light aircraft, the manning of one infantry battalion, one heavy anti-aircraft battery, and the other administrative combatant and ancillary units of the H.K.D.F., the replacement of unreliable local employees of the fighting services, and the operation of the public utilities and other essential services including food distri- bution.
4.
The above list, formidable as it is, takes no account of civil defence measures, which are now under consideration, nor of the multipli- city of controls, such as censorship and all the paraphernalia of modern economic warfare, which would be required if war were to become imminent.
5.
I accordingly directed in February this year that these plans should be examined and should be related to the reliable local manpower likely to be available in an emergency;
as a result the memorandum which is attached as enclosure No.1 to this despatch was submitted to and
The main accepted by the Local Defence Committee on 4th April, 1949. effect of this decision of L.D.C. (a decision with which I concur) is that the civil and civilian effort of this territory shall be concentrated against the internal threat and that only when preparations to this end are considered wholly satisfactory shall civilian manpower be allotted on a significant scale for other purposes.
6.
The
I should here offer some explanation why this prosperous community of nearly two million souls should be less able than others to organise itself, when the need arises, for war or other emergency. answer lies partly in the political and partly in the economic sphere. In the political field we must face the fact that in the kind of emergency likely to arise here we should be fortunate
M
for reasons which
I believe are already well understood and accepted in most quarters
if
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
A. CREECH JONES, M.P.