CO537-(205_1260-1262) — Page 559

000 79

in China, and it would be foolish

risk of an attack on Hong Kong

ear within any given period.

at in 2 or 3 years.

It may

Kodkvicksida We remain of the

ful purpose would be served by

War Office the arrangements for

armerie, and nothing would be

nt time by forming a nucleus

J

d draft at No. 74, however, the fi

suggested that it might be

the acute shortage of manpower in

'aw even the small British garrison

ed to leave in Hong Kong, in order

y elsewhere. If indeed military

ort that it might be necessary to

from their stations abroad to

ituations which could reasonably

visible future, then it seemed to

Authorities should undertake a

es from which such garrisons could

the order of priority in which

drawn. The question of taking

res to provide against oh with-

e considered in its proper

h Colonial territory involved.

justifiable arbitrarily to pick

It

source from which British troops

to meet emergencies elsewhere

ying the whole field.

the formation of a gendarmerie

ion of British personnel at the

be a matter of very great

/difficulty.

cms

Ref:

CO 537/1261

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

1

N

restricbans Further information is given in the enclosed Terms and Conditions of supply of National Archives' leafiel

Please note that this copy is supplied subject to the National Archives' terms and conditions and that your use of it may be subject to copyrigh

00080

difficulty. We have been trying to bring the British

section of the Palestine Police, which is a gendarmerie of this kind, up to strength for a long time and a strong recruiting drive has recently been

in progresa. Mr. Clarke however, were that out of 2,800 vacancies for Palestine there was still, after months of effort, In these circumstances something like 2,000 unfilled.

The figures (which I obtained from

AMERE

the suggestion that we should enter the field with another drive for recruiting European personnel

for similar gendarmerie in competition with Palestine could not offer any very hopeful prospect, and might well be regarded as politically undesirable.

It will be seen from the revised draft at

No. 75 that the above views have been substantially

Their draft now accepted by the drafting officers. suggests that discussions in regard to the formation

of a gendarmerie for Hong Kong should be held in abeyance, and in paragraph 16 of the draft they reflect to some extent the views which I expressed at (4) above. As will be seen from No. 76 I have suggested that this paragraph might well be cast in

a more general form and Colonel Lewis, to whom I spoke, accepted this view and said that he would represent it to his Director of Plans at the War

office.

Ref.:

CO 537/1261

| National Archives' larms

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Please note that this copy is sup information is given in the enclosed Terms and

restrictions Further information is

Conditions of supply of National Archives' leaflet.

detions and that your use of it may be subjec

Lastly I gave the Service Officers at the meeting the substance of No. 73, and suggested to them

that it might be desirable for the question of the

time which would be required to reinforce Hong Kong

with 1 British Brigade and 1 Field Artillery

Regiment to be further explored before the Joint

Planners or the Chiefs of Staff came to any

conclusion about the proposed reduction in the

/British

N