TNAG-0023-FCO40-59-Facilities-for-US-Forces-1968 — Page 14

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CONFIDENTIAL

BRITISH EMBASSY,

WASHINGTON D.C.

7 October 1968

Yes.

Dear James.

The Deve Не Варе

You will have noted from reports in the press that the battleship USS New Jersey has been in action in Vietnamese waters. Although we have no indication that the U.S. Navy are planning that she should visit Hong Kong for rest and recreation it occurred to us here that it would be as well if we gave some thought to the question of whether a visit would be acceptable to us.

She is of course a conventional warship, if a large one, and the only thing about her use for bomb- bardment which singles her out is that her guns fire a rather heavier shell than the warships which have up till now carried out this task. On the face of it, therefore, there seems no reason why she should be treated in any special way. Nevertheless you will have noted that the North Vietnamese have thought fit to claim her entry into a combatant role as "U.S. escalation".

Yours ever,

Michal hiffor

(K.M.Wilford)

James Murray, Esq.,C.M.G.,

Far Eastern Department,

Foreign Office,

London.

0.0.

A.F. Maddocks, Esq., Hong Kong Captain J.G. Jungius, BNS, Washington

CONFIDENTIAL