OUTWARD TELEGRAM
FROM THE COMMONWEALTH OFFICE (The Secretary of State)
TO HONG KONG (0.A.G.)
En Clair
Sent 13 July 1967. 220OZ
HWAY/1
هي
IMMEDIATE No.1436
My immediately preceding telegram.
Following is extract.
Begins.
They were outgunned, outflanked, and trapped, and at 11.15 a.m. appealed by radio for military support. They knew the Gurkhas were only a mile and a half away.
The appeal was received at the Joint Command Headquarters for the new territories at Fanling.
In the control room were Brigadier Peter Martin, Commander of 48 Gurkha Brigade, and Assistant Commissioner of Police John Lees.
The assistant commissioner asked the brigadier for military assistance. The brigadier could do nothing but pass on the request to Lieut.-General Sir John Worsley, Commander British Land Forces, Hong Kong. He could do nothing but pass it on to London.
In London Whitehall, not unnaturally, wanted to know more about it before committing the military.
It took another five hours to say yes, and all that time the Gurkhas, now at battalion strength, could do nothing.
For London had decreed: the military cannot be used without permission. This however is not all London has decreed. From talks with senior British officers, policemen, and civilians, I can state:-
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The military commander is under orders not to make plans for defence in the event of a Chinese attack, lest they leak and alarm the Chinese.
There are to be no plans for an emergency evacuation of Army wives and children, lest they leak and alarm Hong Kong.
Orders issued to the 48 Brigade Commander say he must assist the civil authorities, and inform on any acts of aggression. But apart from gathering information he must not act without authority.
Consider now the situation facing some of the British Gurkha officers in Sha Tau Kok.
US
R
30
/Lieutenant-Colonel
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