CO537-4998 — Page 129

-4.

This Battalion is being looked upon as the Advance Guard of the re-inforcements from elsewhere and might have to be replaced in Malaya.

(c) The Commander in Chief, Air Command, Far East is prepared to fly all available Singapore based Sunder- lands to Hong Kong to supplement coastal patrols if required. Spitfires are receiving long range re-inforcing flight training, and airfields on the re-inforcement out Singapore to Hong Kong have been surveyed.

11. To summarise, The Commanders-in-Chief, Far East Station and Air Command, Far East, are prepared to meet the three threats separately or collectively, although any one arising simultaneously with evacuation from Shanghai and /or Burma will make it impossible for the Navy and at least difficult for the Royal Air Force: to give the necessary assistance in full.

12. On the Army side the present garrison of Hong Kong can meet any of the three threats separately, and if re-inforced by one Battalion and an A.0.P. Flight it can meet the refugee threat accompanied by an influx of armed deserters. Any greater threat will require the provision of further re-inforcements up to one Brigade Group. Under present conditions one Battalion might be made avail- able from theatre resources with difficulty, and for a limited time, towards this requirement. The provision of any additional re-inforcements from within theatre resources depends entirely upon the situation in Malaya and appears out of the question in the foreseeable future without the most serious detriment to and prolongation of the Malayan anti-communist campaign. The Shanghai and Burma commitments are likely at any time to put a further load upon the already over-strained resources of the theatre.

CIRCULATION

D.C.O.R.

Foreign Office

War Registry, Admiralty.

Message Control, War office,

Registry Telegrams, Air Ministry,

Chief of Combined Operations Staff.

Secretary of State For the Colonies. Colonel Leisching.

TOO 231200GH