TOP SECRET
not be able to hold out for very long then we should have to
concentrate all our endeavours on mounting a "crash" operation to
effect the evacuation of as many vulnerable and sensitive persons
as we could manage. At that stage we could seek American and/or
Australian co-operation and mobilise transport in conjunction with
airlines and shipping companies. Such an operation would have to
be hastily improvised but in the circumstances in which it would be mounted there would be few (if any) inhibitions about making
overtly the most effective arrangements we could.
This
6. I should mention that officials of the Australian and United
States Governments have informed us that they are seeking to draw up
a joint plan to ensure that in the last stages of a total breakdown of internal security in Hong Kong (short of a Chinese take-over by
armed force) all sensitive Australian and American personnel and as
many of their other nationals as possible would be evacuated.
proposal appears to have been initiated at official level and is
subject to endorsement by the two Governments concerned. It has
been made quite clear, in reply, that because of their responsibility
for the Colony and its people, there can be no question of any
participation by Her Majesty's Government in plans for the
evacuation of Hong long, and that it is of the utmost importance
that the maximum secrecy be observed in any such planning, which
should not take place in Hong Kong itself. These requirements
have been accepted.
7. The question also arises what we should say publicly on this
We have already been asked (in debates in the House of Lords Commons) whether we have plans for the evacuation of Hong Kong.
issue.
TOP SECRET
/ So
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.