Brief No 10
SECRETARY OF STATE'S VISIT TO HONG KONG
FEBRUARY, 1972
DEFENCE CONTRIBUTION
DEFENSIVE
POINTS TO BE MADE
▼(1)
(2)
It has been the accepted doctrine since the last
century that a dependent territory should contribute
towards the costs of its own defence according to its
capacity to pay.
It is true that few, if any, other colonial territories
have contributed to the cost of their own defence on
the same scale as Hong Kong has done over the years.
But this tends to obscure the fact that many territories
have not paid defence contributions because they have
been defended by essentially local forces paid for from
the local budget to which Her Majesty's Government has
contributed as necessary.
(3) Even with the many other calls upon its budget, which
undoubtedly exist, for the provision of social and
other services, the Colony's prosperity is such as to
enable it, without undue difficulty, to contribute
towards the cost of its garrison on the scale that has
been agreed. The presence of the garrison is of
undoubted economic benefit to Hong Kong and indeed helps
in a vital way to engender and maintain that confidence
upon which the whole economy of the Colony depends.
1
CONFIDENTIAL
/(4)
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