TNAG-0055-FCO40-91-Defence-review-1977 — Page 79

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10.

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(c) Malaysia, Singapore and the Far East

(i) Apart from the amphibious force and the remaining Gurkha units,

any land force contribution for the defence of Malaysia and Singapore will have to come from reinforcements. By 1970-71 there would be insufficient stockpiles of equipment and stores in the theatre for such reinforcements, and hence they and the remaining Gurkha units could not be effective in operations above the level of internal security operations (for which we have no Treaty obligations) in under three months.

(ii) Naval forces will be limited by 1970-71 to those needed to

for local maintain a naval presence in the Indo-Pacific area, maritime patrol activities and for intelligence gathering; they will be insufficient for a major operation without reinforcement from West of Suez. Similarly the RAF presence will be severely restricted and will be dependent on reinforcement from the United Kingdom for cajor operations. Royal Navy and RAF forces in the theatre will, however, be available for declaration to SEATO and to the Commonwealth Strategic Reserve.

(a) The Unforeseen.

Forces in the theatre will be inadequate to deal with major unforeseen events in which the United Kingdom might

get involved.

(e) Dependent Territories. Any reinforcement for any purpose of our

remaining dependent territories in the Indo/Pacific area will

only be possible by the use of the amphibious force or by the despatch of forces from the United Kingdom.

In short before 1970-71 it will be necessary to secure a specific understanding with Malaysia and Singapore that our Treaty obligation would be limited to the presence of maritime forces and air forces, both of which would be highly dependent on reinforcement from West of Suez, and to secure a clear understanding that land forces could not be guaranteed for major operations in under three months. Force declarations and timing to SEATO will have to be progressively reduced each year. By April 1970 any land forces, apart from amphibious forces, could only be deployed after a delay of some three months. It is highly desirable that the obligation to Brunei should have been fully liquidated by 1970-71; we are already working to

this end.

11. By 1975-76

to have been modified accordingly.

In

There will be no military forces on the mainland of Asia (apart from Hong Kong). It follows, therefore, that our Treaty obligations will need

Equally the whole basis of our membership of SEATO, assuming it still exists, will also need to be re-negotiated. both cases any force contribution will have to be on an "if available" basis Reinforcements for our dependent territories will need to come from West of Suez unless the maritime presence in Australia contained an amphibious

element.

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