TNAG-0020-FCO40-56-Facilities-for-US-Forces-1967 — Page 134

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a)

(b)

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2.

34/E.

The Government of Hong Kong are anxious to be as helpful as possible over visits by United States servicemen to the Colony. In the first place, the Americans are our friends and in the second, Hong Kong earns a lot of dollars from these visits;

The present Governor of Hong Kong is personally very relaxed about the visits, as we and the Americans had an opportunity of seeing when he visited Washington in July of last year;

(c) However, as he pointed out during his visit, the Colony contains nearly four million Chinese packed into a very small area. Whenever the Chinese Communists wish, they can produce a riot without any warning at all.

Large scale riots can bring the whole life of the Colony to a stand- still (e.g. the Kowloon riots of 1956, even though they were not thought to have had any central organization behind them);

(a) Hong Kong is in some ways useful to the Chinese and there seems at present no reason to suppose that Peking intends to recover it by force before the Treaty expires. But the Colony is ninety per cent dependent on China for its food and probably thirty or forty per cent for its water (though it can at a pinch do without Chinese water supplies). By a combination of pressures on food, water and public security the Chinese Communists can very easily remind the Colony that it continues to exist on their sufferance. A year ago one would have said that they were unlikely to take any such step unless gravely provoked, but in the uproar caused by the Cultural Revolution we can no longer bank on rational Chinese behaviour;

(e)

G

If a major riot took place on the issue of visits by United States servicemen, naval visits at least would have to be stopped or greatly restricted for a considerable period, because ships cannot be concealed (and we know that the Chinese keep a tally of them). It is therefore in the interests of the whole United States rest and recreation programme for the American military authorities to be responsive to requests by the Governor of Hong Kong occasionally to postpone or cancel naval visits;

(f) Hong Kong is not the only port in the area to which United

States servicemen can go for rest and recreation, but it is the only one liable to immediate retaliation by the Chine'se;

(g) If the military could prevent reporters from publicizing

the names of the ships taking part in operations off Vietnam, the problem would be very much easier, and indeed, would more or less vanish, but since we know that they cannot do so, they must pay the penalty for the American way of life, instead of blaming their friends.

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CONFIDENTIAL