TNAG-0060-FCO40-96-Strength-of-Hong-Kong-garrison-1968 — Page 197

FCO40 Hong Kong Department Records 聯邦事務部香港部檔案 All

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ANNEX A to Dr 9/68(c)

inter

alia

л

(Preliminary Draft)【Continued)

local and in particular poliće morale and thus on the

position of the Hong Kong Government.

Royal Navy

5.

PRESENT FORCE LEVELS AND CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS

The present forces in Hong Kong comprise:

a. One frigate, reinforced by an additional frigate from the

Far East Command in times of tension, to give added support to

maritime police patrols and to act as a deterrent to Chinese

Communist Navy interference. This ship also constitutes the

United Kingdom naval contribution to the United Nations

Command in South Korea.

b.

Two nine countermeasures (MCM) vessels, on rotation from

Singapore, reinforced by two additional vessels in times of

tension for direct support of maritime police patrols to pre-

vent the free influx of refugees by sea and to contribute to

the control of piracy and smuggling.

C. Limited shore support facilities at HMS TAMAR.

The remainder of the Far East Fleet, based on Singapore, is available

for reinforcement of the Hong Kong Garrison.

Army

6. The present concept of operations is based on the need to

retain the capability to control an internal security situation.

To fail to do this would, apart from other consequences, present

the Chinese with a pretext for military intervention. The ability

to maintain control of internal security depends on our ability to

A control the frontier, in order to prevent the situation being aggre-

vated by an influx of large. numbers of infiltrators or refugees.

7.

Furthermore, if we are to continue to implement our present

policy to expose any Chinese incursion into the colony by armed

force as an act of aggression, it is necessary to provide a screen

force on the frontier composed of all arms. This force must be

strong enough to prevent Chinese forces from crossing the frontier

A - 3

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