TNAG-0021-FCO40-57-Facilities-for-US-Forces-1968 — Page 97

The Congregational Church in England and Wales

Minister Secretary: THE REVD JOHN HUXTABLE m.a.

MEMORIAL HALL

E

FARRINGDON STREET

LONDON EC4 54%

Telephone: 01-248 8801

15th January, 1968

sy/e/vi

JH/DKJ

The Rt. Hon. Denis Healey,

Ministry of Defence,

Main Building,

Whitehall, LONDON, S.W.1

Dear Mr. Healey,

ез

I hope you will forgive me for having deferred making a substantive reply to your letter of 13th December, until I could consult the appropriate committee of this Church, which met on the 11th January.

They have requested me both to thank you for your detailed reply to my letter of the 29th November, and to ask for clarification on two

These are: points of information arising from what you say.

1. Are you satisfied the Malaysian Government still welcomes the

training of United States troops on their soil?

2.

Do you consider the final clause of the last sentence of paragraph (4) of your letter to be compatible with the official policy of the Labour Party, as laid down by the Labour Party Conference?

The

Your fifth paragraph is, I think, based on a misunderstanding. point I make in my letter of the 29th November concerning Hong Kong was

Our unrelated to the press report you mentioned, of which I was unaware. concern is with the Chinese reaction to the leave and recuperative facilities regularly granted there to U.S. military personnel. view these facilities represent support facilities for the prosecution of the Vietnam War, and for the presence of American ground troops on the soil of Asia for this purpose.

Chinese reaction to this on its doorstep

In our

is understandable. Even if you consider this reaction to be unjustified, have you sufficiently weighed the significance of Chinese protests and the fact that the granting of these facilities makes further moves against Hong Kong more likely?

Yours sincerely,

for

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