TNAG-0254-FCO40-290-Contributions-of-Hong-Kong-for-costs-of-maintaining-military-1971 — Page 97

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additional requirements include three or possibly more extra

1

battalions for the permanent garrison in Northern Ireland,

reinforcement battalions for Gibraltar and British Honduras,

the battalion in Cyprus engaged in U. N. peacekeeping operations,

and up to three more battalions to maintain a presence East of

(a battalion in Malaysia/Singapore, Suez La battalion in the Persian Gulf and a battalion in Brunei).

The Brigade of Gurkhas

5. No formal decision had been taken by the previous Government

on the future of the Gurkha Brigade after December 1971 when

the Brigade, reduced to four battalions, 'would have been concen-

́trated in Hong Kong, although in the Long Term Costings of the

Defence Budget it had been assumed the Brigade would be dis-

banded in 1972/73. The first draft of the Defence Secretary's

paper recommended that an immediate decision should be taken to

stop the rundown of the Brigade and to maintain it on a five

battalion basis after 1971. Treasury officials have, however,

voiced strong opposition to any decision being taken on the

Gurkhas until the review of defence expenditure set in train by

the Chancellor of the Exchequer has been completed; probably

sometime in September. The Prime Minister also minuted to the

Defence Secretary on 15 July that he hoped we could enter into

as few commitments in the defence field as possible until we had

completed our general look at overseas and defence policy and

could make sense of the whole and of the individual decisions

as part of the whole. The Defence Secretary subsequently

decided to postpone seeking a decision on the future of the

Gurkhas until after he had returned from the Far East.

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6. The Ambassador in Kathmandu has reported that for economic

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