CO537-(205_1260-1262) — Page 609

Ref.:

CO 537/1261

THE NATIONAL ARCHIVĖS

N

restrictions Further information is given in the enclosed Terms and Conditions of supply of National Archives' leaflet Please note that this copy is supplied subject to the National Archives' lerms and conditions and that your use of it may be subject to copyright

On the question whether the present is an appropriate time to take the matter further, wo

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 conclusion 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/

7