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CO 537/1261

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

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77

I attended, with Colonel Chalmers, a meeting

of the Staff Officers of the Services who are

preparing the draft of the Paper about the future garrison of Hong Kong for the consideration of the Joint Planners. As regards the proposal that there

should be discussions between the War Office and the

Colonial Office about the establishment of a gendarmerie, or as it was put in No.74 a nucleus gendarmerie", I made the following points:-

(1) The risk of an attack on Hong Kong in considerable force by Chinese war lords or guerillas

could not be regarded lightly. All competent

authorities on the spot were agreed that it was a definite risk, and that the withdrawal of the British garrison would wwwby increase it.

(2) A British garrison in Hong Kong would be able, if an attack developed, to offer effective resistance pending the arrival of reinforcements, and its presence would in itself be a deterrent against an attack

being launched. In neither respect could a

gendarmerie consisting of a mixed force of Europeans

and Asiatics be regarded as a satisfactory

substitute for British troops.

(3) execpta It had been strongly urged

by the civil and military authorities in Hong Kong

and South East Asia that a British garrison should be retained in Hong Kong until conditions in China were

more stable. The Colonial Office very strongly

supported this view. If it were accepted, the

question of withdrawing the British garrison

altogether and replacing it with a gendarmerie

does not arise as a practical issue at present and

will not do so within any period which can be

foreseen. It is quite impossible to guess how

/matters

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