China's present attitude perd te no such solution,
although we do not rule it out as a possibility at a
later stage if the Cultural Revolution conos to an end
and the attitude of the Chinese Government bocomos nore
rational. This possibility will, of course, be covered in the longer term study.
Problems of Planning for Evecuation
4. The major difficulty hare is that, if it became
known in Hong Kong that we were preparing for withdrawal,
public confidence vould evaporate immediately and our
position could becaus untenable overnight, Bocase of
the danger of leakage, it is impossible to prepare a plan
in Hong Kong or even in Singapore.
5.
There is an existing evacuation plan ("DIGIT")
prepared in the early 1950s providing for the evacuation
of non-Chineso women, children and olderly man only. It
is out-of-date and inappropriate to present circumstances.
It was prepared in Hong Kong hut not ismcued outside a
very mall circle of top officials. Its success would
hava depanded on the ability of goverment and military officors to interpret correctly and quickly give effect
to sets of detailed instructions that would have been
issued only when the Governor had given the order for tho plan to be put into operation. It is exonsdingly doubtful whether it could have been successfully implemented in
these circumstances.
6. Any plan prepared under the arrangements recommanded
in the repert will have the nams inherent weakne0000, fe
mist expect that we shall not be able to nohiowo the
ovacuation of anything like the numbers of people mentioned
in paragraph of the ropart. Apart from the weaknessSU of the plan, 1' is unlikely that we should either have
time onough or sufficient transport for our purposes (paragraph of the report). Nevertheless, wo think it
important that such a plan should be prepared so that we
ORI ake as good use as we can of the opportunities that
may be offered.
Joskins Fotos
7.
There is attached at Annex B notes on the currant
situation for use by the Secretary of State in introducing
the paper.
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