TNAG-0042-FCO40-78-Future-Sovereignty-of-Hong-Kong-Defence-Review-Working-Party-1967 — Page 153

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clearly defined as "Chinese aggression".

<

It

is much less likely that a deterjent of this

a

sort could put an end to the incitment to sub-

version in Hong Kong, since the Chinese would

calculate, quite correctly, that there is no

point at which such subversion can be con-

sidered as the justification

retaliation against China.

nuclear

9. Although we believe that the Americans

want us to stay in Hong Kong for the moment,

we think it unlikely that they would be

prepared to give anything approaching a public

nuclear guarantee for Hong Kong. A guarantee

of this sort for a British colony in Asia would

be unacceptable for many reasons. There might however be advantage in trying to make the

Chinese believe that the Americans are involved

in or committed to the defence of Hong Kong.

The continued presence of American ships in

Hong Kong is helpful in this connexion and

:

other methods of doing so should also be

considered.

1.

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