TOP SECRET
OPD
INTERIM REPORT: HONG KONG
OPD(67)61
S5A
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 24th July i.e. by summarising the interim report. A summary of
this 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 24th July which may be touched
upon in OPD. These are dealt with below.
CONSULTATIONS WITH THE AUSTRALIANS
3. The report mentions (para. 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.
4. No mention has been made 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
particular, of 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 and were not 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 be necessary
to say something more to the Australians through our High
Commissioner in Canberra to ensure that this pressure is not
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