TNAG-0043-FCO40-79-Future-Sovereignty-of-Hong-Kong-Defence-Review-Working-Party-1968 — Page 117

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HONG KONG: LONG-TERM STUDY

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The Working Party considered a note by the Commonwealth Office (OPDO(DR) (68) 5), to which was attached a draft report on policy in respect of Hong Kong in the long term.

THE CHAIRMAN said that when the long-term study reached its final form it should go first to the Ministerial Committee on Hong Kong and then to the Defence and Oversea Policy Committee. Ministers might like to see at the same time the paper being prepared by the Ministry of Defence on the

strength of the garrison and plans for reinforcement.

Procedure

In discussion of procedure the following points were made

(a) The Governor of Hong Kong would be in this country at the end of April. The Commonwealth Office would like him to see the paper before it went to Ministers, and the Commonwealth Secretary would undoubtedly wish to go through it with him.

(b) The paper on the strength of the garrison and reinforcement plans

dealt with its subject within fairly narrow limits. One point which ought to be taken into consideration was the attributable cost of retaining a

military presence in Hong Kong as compared with the saving that we would make if we did not have to keep troops in the Colony. Over the period up

to the end of the lease of the New Territories in 1997 the total cost

would be very substantial. The question was whether this point could most

appropriately be made in the Ministry of Defence paper or the Commonwealth Office long-term study.

(c) From the point of view of the Commonwealth Office there was no

particular urgency about completing the long-term study. It would be

acceptable if Ministers were to take the paper in about one month's time.

THE CHAIRMAN, summing up this part of the discussion, said that the

Working Party should take the paper on the strength of the garrison and

reinforcement plans soon after Easter. When it had been agreed, the Working Party could decide how much of it needed to be included in the long-term study not necessarily at any great length. They could at the

same time consider a revised draft of the long-term study, which could

thereafter be seen by the Governor of Hong Kong and the Commonwealth

Secretary before it passed to the Ministerial Committee and ultimately to

OPD.

-

The Working Party -

(1) Took note, with approval, of the Chairman's summing up of

their discussion.

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