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Д
Mr Wilfore
Sir L Monson
Wen?
DORMANT COMMISSION
1. Please see my submission of 4 October.
2.
I now attach:
(a) a draft letter to Mr Nairne, Ministry of Defence,
for signature by Sir Leslie Monson, enclosing:
(b) a draft submission to the Secretary of State and
(c) ä draft background note, with a copy of the
Dormant Commission.
3. Defence Department concur.
4 November 1971
Mania
E O Laird
Hong Kong Department
agree
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9
HKK 10/10
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LETTER
P D Nairne Esq MC
Deputy Under Secretary of State (Policy and Programmes)
MOD
Sir L Monson
1.
We have recently been considering whether there
is any need any longer to provide for the
appointment in certain circumstances of the
Commander British Forces, Hong Kong, (CBF) as
Governor and Commander in Chief of the Colony.
you know, a Dormant Commission was issued to the
CBF in 1951.
As
2. After consulting both the retiring Governor and
the Governor-designate we have come to the conclusion
here that the Commission no longer serves a useful
purpose and should be terminated. Our reasons for
reaching this conclusion are set out in the
enclosed draft submission to the Foreign and
Commonwealth Secretary.
3.
The Commission was issued in agreement with the
War Office and the Chiefs of Staff at the time and
I should be grateful to learn whether you see any
objection to our proposal and, if not, whether we may say in paragraph 2 of the submission that "the Ministry of Defence agree that the Commission
no longer serves a useful purpose and should be
terminated".
You will no doubt also say whether you
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/have
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have any amendments which you would like to see
incorporated in the submission or the background
note.
4.
If our recommendation is approved, we propose
to inform the Governor accordingly and to ask him
to obtain the Commission from the CBF and return
it to us. We suggest that the matter be dealt
with in this manner since the Commission was
originally issued to the CBF by hand of the
Governor.
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No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.