XN000022-1997-04-09 — Page 14

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Among those attending the ceremony will be the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, Commander British Forces Major General Bryan Dutton, Senior Naval Officer and Chief of Staff Commodore Peter Melson, and First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jock Slater, who has flown in from the United Kingdom especially for the occasion.

Music for the ceremony will be provided by the Band of the Royal Marines, who are based at Portsmouth in the south of England, and who are currently enjoying a short tour of the territory.

The first naval officer to set foot in Hong Kong was probably the commanding officer of HMS Sulphur, Sir Edward Belcher, who landed on January 25, 1841 and drank Her Majesty's health on Possession Mount, near the present day Hollywood Road. The following day, the Colony was formally claimed by Commodore Sir Gordon Bremer and the Union flag was raised for the first time.

HMS Tamar, a name synonymous with the China Station, first arrived in Hong Kong on April 11, 1897. The fourth ship of this name, she was secured to a buoy in Victoria Harbour and then moved along side the west wall of the newly reclaimed dockyard in 1913, where she remained until the Second World War. When it became clear that Hong Kong would fall to the Japanese in December 1941 she was scuttled, a sad end to an unglamorous career.

The new HMS Tamar, and fifth in line, was commissioned in 1946 and between 1959 and 1962 a modern naval base was established between Harcourt Road and the waterfront. The continuing reclamation of the north shores of Hong Kong Island, including the former Victoria Basin, necessitated the relocation of the Royal Navy's shore establishment to Stonecutters Island in May 1993 from where it has since operated, in support of the three ships of the Hong Kong Squadron. HMS Tamar is commanded by Lieutenant Commander Cliff Squibb.

The Hong Kong Squadron will remain on duty in Hong Kong waters up to, and including, June 30, 1997, supported by a rationalised naval operational unit. Once their duties in the territory are completed the three patrol craft will be sold, subject to negotiation, to the Philippines.

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