TNAG-0348-FCO40-384-Costs-of-extra-services-provided-by-armed-forces-of-UK-in-Ho-1972 — Page 42

NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN

CONFIDENTIAL

and Commonwealth Office have provided the following

information in addition to that contained in the

telegram.

6.

From early July 1967, after a particularly

serious border incident, the Army had taken over

responsibility for the defence of the border with the

police in support. There had been a number of

incursions by groups of people from China over the

border into Hong Kong. On one particular occasion,

numbers of Chinese had intruded into British territory,

torn down the then existing border fence and other

obstacles and had ended up by holding prisoner

within our territory a British Brigadier and a number

of Gurkha soldiers. In addition at that time

conditions in China, as a result of the cultural

revolution, were such that there was a serious risk

that large numbers of Chinese fleeing from @hina

might either try to burst over the frontier, or

alternatively and in order to embarrass the British

troops on the border, might be driven over it.

The border fence in existence at that time was very

close to the actual border and quite useless for the

purpose of helping to control any incursion of the

kinds mentioned above or indeed of any other kind.

Accordingly the Governor and the military

authorities in Hong Kong agreed on the erection of

a new fence well back from the frontier and in a

position where any incursion could be held without

intervention from China's armed forces on the border,

short of their violating British territory or

resorting to the use of fire-arms. An indication

of the situation at the time can perhaps best be

3

CONFIDENTIAL

/obtained