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NOTE FOR PRESS OFFICERS
117
If questioned about allegations in the press that we
are preparing evacuation plans for Hong Kong it should first
be established whether the enquirer is concerned with the
implications of a full-scale Chinese military attack on the
Colony. If he is, the answer is that we could not for obvious
reasons of security disclose what our plans are for this
contingency.
2. If questions are directed to the consequences, not of
direct military attack, but of a deteriorating situation in
Hong Kong itself, News Departments should say:
(i) the Government have made their position on Hong Kong
quite clear quotes from Ministerial statements about
discharging our responsibilities to Hong Kong to be
available.
(ii) There is always substantial planning activity going
on in respect of Hong Kong, but such planning is related
not to evacuation but to what is necessary to our
continuing to discharge our responsibilities in Hong Kong
(e.g. provision of water supplies, provisioning etc.)
Suggestions that we are planning for evacuation must be
the result of some misunderstanding of our intentions
and present activities.
(iii) Unattributably, News Departments should point out
that it is quite unrealistic to speak of evacuation in
the circumstances of Hong Kong there are some 2 million
citizens of the U.K. and Colonies in Hong Kong - how
could they be evacuated? If pressed on the position of
expatriate Europeans, News Departments should say, also
unattributably, that our responsibilities extend to all
British subjects in
including a very laye number of U.K. citizens of the Colony, and to its population as a Chinese race, not only a expatuater
whole, and to refuse further comment.
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