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16. On the general question of reserve supplies for all three Services, I was assured that stocks of ermunition and food are now being built up to the necessary level. It was not clear that oil fuel and aviation fuel supplies were fully adequate for Naval and R.A.F. requircaents and I asked for the position to be specially examined from this aspect. The three Service Commanders expressed themselves as satisfied in all other respects with the arrangements now in hand for reinforcing the Colony and are confident that, when the final build-up has been achieved, our forces will be adequate to meet any threat from Communist China.

17. LOCAL ENLISTMENT.

I had the advantage of a discussion with Colonel Ride, the Commanding Officer for the Hong Kong Defence Force, who is also the Vice-Chancellor of the University, He confirmed the view held by many, that insufficient had yet been said to establish local confidence, but seemed more satisfied as a result of our talk. Instead of meeting a small number of his recruits as he suggested, I persuaded him to summon at 30 hours notice as many as possible of the Volunteers and on Wednesday June 8th I addressed over 500 of them at the Local H.Q., thanking them for their public spirit in coming forward to help and urging each one to be a missionary to obtain recruits both for the Defence Force and the manning of essential services in any emergency. Colonel Ride informed me afterwards that he was delighted with the turn out at such short notice, and especially with the favourable impression created. I shook hands with the majority of those who paraded, including considerable numbers of Chinese, and had many individual conversations with them. I was informed that the total number of volunteers including those for essential services now exceeded two thousand and I am hopeful that, if there is a successful follow-up, satisfactory numbers will be enrolled.

18. The Police Force and Internal Security.

My talks in the Colony included a discussion with Mr. D.W. Mackintosh, the Commissioner of Police, who was one of the party with whom I toured the New Territories and with the Superintendent of his Special Branch, Mir, Vilson. I formed the impression that Mackintosh's

organisation was both efficient and reliable so far es regards normal police work in the detection and prevention of crime. This impression was confirmed by some of those in the Colonies best able to judge including the Chief Justice. Much, however, remains to be done to achieve a similar standard of efficiency in relation to political crime and subversive activity. The Commissioner was confident that he could at any given moment clamp down if the internal situation became difficult, though it seemed to me that this view was over optimistic without the prior intriduction of a system of registration, which alone could cope with any large influx of population.