1.e. by Summarising The interimi report.
TOP SECRET
Dralle Brill for
O.P.D.
INTERIM REPORT 1 HONG KONG
(As affiroved)
(Paper No.OPD(67)61)
X
55A
The Secretary of State may wish to introduce this paper in the Same
way as he introduced it in the Hong Kong Ministerial Committee on the 24th July A summary of the interim report is attached; it is the one used by the Secretary of State at the previous meeting.
2.
There are certain points arising from the Minutes of the Ministerial
Committee Meeting on the 24th of July which may be touched upon in 0.P.D.
These are dealt with below.
Consultations with the Australians
Á. The report mentions (paragraph 17) that the Americans could be of
great assistance in an evacuation but concludes that, because of the risk
of a leak, we need not now seek to plan jointly with them. The Ministerial
Committee concluded that we should not at present consult the United States
Administration about our plans.
has been
4. No mention is made here of the pressure that the Australians have
been exerting at official level for joint contingency planning for an
evacuation. The Australians have considerable interests in Hong Kong
and the Australian community numbers about 2,500. They have expressed anxiety for the safety of these and, in particularly, about their contingent attached to the intelligence community. At one stage they refused to
believe that we were telling them the truth when we said that we had no
evacuation plans nor were we proposing to prepare any. We have now made it clear at high official level that this is the position and have been
told by the officials concerned that they fully understand our difficulties.
Nevertheless, the pressure continues at a lower level and we think it may
5.
It may be necessary to tell them at the highest level and in strict confidence that we are now preparing evacuation plans in the United Kingdom and will consult with them at an appropriate stage. This may lead them to press us to bring the Americans in. It would perhaps be advisable at this stage to avoid too rigid an attitude towards consulting with the Americans and Canadians in spite of the risks: we may reach the conclusion at quite an early stage of planning that, in an emergency planning, we willneed their military and logistic assistance.
Ésuckcokcom
Hong Kong a small nuclear strike force similar to that stationed in Singapore
at the time of the Indonesian confrontation was mentioned.
1
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