Extract
ar
HWA
10/9
CONFIDENTIAL
outright attack, it was nevertheless necessary.
It was impossible to separate internal security
from external defence because a breakdown in
internal security would invite external inter-
vention. There had been some erosion of
confidence in the U.K. because of a number of
issues such as the dockyard lands, and some growth
in the feeling that Britain no longer really cared
about Hong Kong. That was why he was opposed to
any reduction in the garrison at the present time.
The Garrison
3.
The Commander British Forces said that
some gunners and armour were necessary as part of
the confidence trick to show our determination to
resist and expose aggression. If trouble came
it was likely to be a combination of external sabre
rattling and internal agitation as had recently
happened in Macao. The proposed reduction to
5.2/3 major units would mean the Gunner Regiment
leaving. They had offered other economies instead,
for example the Gurkha Engineers unit, but they had
been told that Hong Kong was the only place where
it could be kept. They accepted this but had put
forward an alternative proposal to the C.D.S.,
namely that they should keep one R.A. battery in
return for giving up the Pack Transport Squadron.
It had been argued that the Pack Transport Squadron
was not a teeth arm unit; but it would nevertheless
secure savings in foreign exchange. They understood
that the C.D.S. favoured the retention of one R.A.
battery and they sought the Secretary of State's
support for this. The Secretary of State undertook
to look into it on return and repeated that no
decision had yet been taken on the timing of the
proposed withdrawal of one major unit.
CONFIDENTIAL
/4.
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