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TOP SECRET
I should mention
Ministers will wish to be aware that officials of the Australian and
ware]
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
short of
internal security in Hong Kong (and this would not include 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. This 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 Kong, and that it was 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.
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