"we consider the
fence to be a matter of external rather than internal
security and thus a proper charge on HM Government"
and went on to ask us to approach the Treasury on your
behalf. Since by that time we were well into the
negotiations over the defence contribution we decided
that it would be wiser from everyone's point of view
not to run the risk of complicating those already
difficult negotiations by introducing this extraneous
factor.
Q
After
WORK ON BORDER POSTS (OPERATION "HIGHLAND BONNET")
5. The other outstanding item involves a sum of
£20,691 spent by the Services on stores required for
refurbishing certain border posts in connection with the 1967 distrubances. This has been the subject of
correspondence between Hong Kong and ourselves ending
in Jeaffreson's letter to me of 5 February 1971.
6. Since the beginning of this year we have had
considerable inter-departmental discussions in an
attempt to resolve these outstanding issues.
the fullest consultation in Whitehall therefore I
would now like to propose the following solution.
7. As to the Snake Fence, neither the Hong Kong
Government nor the MOD disputes that the fence was
built on the instructions of the Governor in order to
stop land incursions of all kinds into the Colony, and
that at the time of its building such incursions might
be aggressive or might be made by refugees seeking to
immigrate illegally. This dispute therefore centres
on which kind of incursion the fence was primarily or
predominantly designed to prevent. In our view, since
external military aggression was at the time felt to be
/threatened
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Insent
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