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Annex Alo Note No.6
VISIT OF DEPUTY UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE
(SIR LESLIE MONSON)
TO HONG KONG, OCTOBER, 1969
DEFENCE MATTERS
BACKGROUND
General
Hong Kong could not be defended against a
determined Chinese attack except perhaps by the use
of nuclear weapons. There are no plans for the rein-
forcement of Hong Kong against external aggression and
the external role of the garrison is to offer such
resistance as may be appropriate in the circumstances
at the time. Although there is no agreement with the
United States about coming to the defence of Hong Kong,
the U.S. Government have been given an assurance that
it is our intention to resist aggression. Local
opinion, while probably under no illusion about the
ability of the present garrison to resist for long,
regards the existence of British troops deployed to
guard the frontier as an assurance of our intention to mamitan our position in
defendy the Colonys it is probably assumed locally that
t.s.
in any general hostilities in the area the Seventh
Fleet would, if necessary, intervene.
2. An overt attack by the Chinese is less likely than
an attempt to get the Colony by subversion.
Our ability
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