CO537-(205_1260-1262) — Page 58

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TOP SECRET

er to D.11, 0.

24th August 1946

lay in answering your

y on the subject of

1 raised required some

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efs of Staff have agreed 1 of the proposal to

Kong, and the policy OZ1403 of the 3rd April, as now, at two Brigades

force of the Colony is

t that it would take some eme for a gendarmerie to

are some aspects of the by a gendarmerie which going into the details.

the Hong Kong Defence

s which rere remitted

h East Asia Defence

5 appreciation which we Governor of Hong Kong. have finished with it he form in part of a

Plaining Staff on the

Final Revise) dated the niefs of Staff at their

hat the Hong Kong Defonce at sporadic guerilla

nternal unrest or civil e. They state that

considered to be no ese "ar Lords, the rating and renewed

Communists may well be Lords equipped with usible to predict this

d. On the question of Hong Kong, they express e police and volunteer rained, the .inimum

is i

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CO 537/1260

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

N

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

restrictions.

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

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Ref.

CO 537/1260

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

N

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 copyrig

restrictions. Further information is given in the enclosed Terms and Conditions of supply of National Archives' leaflet

2

4.

Once the police and volunteer forces are in a position to take over their comitents and the movement of Chinese troops through Kowloon has ceased, however, they consider that it would be sufficient to have one of the above brigades and one regiment of artillery at call from S. E. A. C. reserve and not necessarily permanently stationed in the Colony.

5.

This is a very different picture from that reflected in the Joint Flanners' Report, and it seems to us to put the whole matter in a new perspective. The Hong Kong Defence Committee state that the effective strength of the present garrison is not a sufficiunt deterrent to attack by a Chinese "ar Lord. It may not be an unfair inference that the total withdrawal of the British garrison might in itself encourage or provoke such an attack, and if it were to develop on the scale which the Local Committee envisage no gendarmerie could be expected to resist it successfully. We fully realise that under present conditions of manpower short ge so.ie risks ust be taken but neither the Chiefs of Starf nor the Defence Committee have hitherto hd the advantage of considering this problem in the 11 ht of a detailed survey by the Service and civil authorities in Hong Kong, and we hope you will agree that it would be premature to tackle the question of ostablishing a local gendarmerie designed to take the place of the garrison until this new survey has been fully examined.

6.

South East Asia Defence Committee will no doubt soon be given their co..ments on the Hong Kong Committee's Report. When these are received, they, together with the Report, will presumably come before the Chiefs of Staff, in the circumstances we should propose that the question of the gendarmerie should stand over until the Chiefs of Staff have considered them.

7.

The two other and rather less important factors which ought, we think, to be given some consideration before any detailed scheme for a gendarmerie is prepared concern an-power and finance. e do not see that there would be any great saving in British manpower if the gendarm erie were, like the Palestine Police, to contain a high proportion of Europeans, as these Europeans would probably be selected from serving soldiers or young men about to be called up for the forces; and, on finance, Hong Kong is grant-aided and the Treasury would have to be consulted in regared to the cost of the gendarmerie. They may take the line that since the cost of raising the gendarmerie would in effect fall on the British taxpayer, they would have to be satisfied that it was quite impossible for troops to be retained in Hong "ong, at any rate so long as the Colony is grant-aided.

8.

If we are to go ahead now with the preparation of

a detailed scheme for a gendarmerie, we should, as a first step, consult the Governor, who is of course very fully occupied at the moment. But I hope that in view of the reasons given above, you will agree that the matter should not be pursued, at any rate for the present.

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