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5. I consider that we should take no action to
plan for an evacuation at the present time. If
we were faced with a rapidly deteriorating
situation in which it became evident that we would
not be able to hold out for very long then we
should have to concentrate all our endeavours
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 Australia 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 arrange-
ments we could.
6. The question also arises what we should say
publicly on this issue. We have already been
asked (in debates in the House of Lords) whether
we have plans for the evacuation of Hong Kong.
So far we have been able to avoid any direct
answer. But we may well be pressed to give one.
The dilemma is that, if we say there are no
plans, this could lead to a public outcry here
in the United Kingdom; while, if we said that
plans were being prepared, confidence in Hong
Kong would be shattered.
7. We could perhaps continue to try to
/avoid
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