00110
69
Downing Street,
8.W.1.
October, 1946.
13031/4/46 Part II.
Dear Mallaby,
We have now been able to examine the latest revise of the draft Paper by the Joint Planning staff on the future garrison of
Hong Kong (No. JP(46)179(0), and we think it
may be of assistance to the Joint Planners to have a statement of the view we take about the proposal that a local militia or gendarmerie might be raised in Hong Kong to replace at some future date the British garrison,
This suggestion originated with the
War Office, It has never been communicated to, or considered by, the Hong Kong Government, the Hong Kong Defence Committee, or the British Defence Committee in South East Asia, We are aware of the difficulties with which the War Office are faced in regard to manpower and of course raise no objection whatever to the proposal being considered on its merits at the appropriate time. But in
view of the recommendation of the South East Asia Defence Committee that it should be accepted in principle that a garrison of one British brigade and a field regiment will be required in Hong Kong until conditions in China become more stable and in the absence of consultation with the local civil and military authorities we do not feel able to go further than that.
On/
NEL H.G.C. MALLABY.
THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
CO 537/1261
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On the question whether the present is an appropriate time to take the matter further, we
have little to add to my letter of the 28th September. It has been urged by the Hong Kong Defence Committee and the British Defence Committee, South East Asia, that for the present a British garrison is essential because of the risk of attack by Chinese war lords or guerillas, and this view, we understand, the
It seems Joint Planners are prepared to accept.
to us quite impossible to foresee how matters will develop in China or to form any estimate of the time when it may be possible to discount the threat of large scale attack on Hong Kong from the Chinese mainland, When that time arrives, the internal situation in Hong Kong itself may be quite different from what it is today. In all the circumstances we consider that, as the proposal to raise a militia or gendarmerie to take the place of the British garrison is not at present a practical issue consultations on this project now would serve no useful purpose.
We assume that the conalusion in paragraph 16(a) that the garrison of Hong Kong should consist of a British force until the security of the Colony can be assured by a gendarmerie was not intended to involve any departure from the corresponding conclusions in paragraph 11(a) and (b) of the previous draft, namely that in view of the recommendations of the South East Asia Defence Committee it should be accepted in principle that a garrison of one British brigade and a field regiment will be required in Hong Kong until conditions in China become more stable, and that a local militia should be the eventual garrison, although it is
realised/
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THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
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