TNAG-0348-FCO40-384-Costs-of-extra-services-provided-by-armed-forces-of-UK-in-Ho-1972 — Page 81

From Mr L H Curzon CB AUS(CF)

Our reference: Your reference:

AUS(CF)/7576

K M Wilford Esq CMG

MINISTRY of defence Main Building, Whitehall, LONDON S.W.1

Telephone: 01-930 7022, ext. 6763

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Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW 1

24 February 1972

See letter to Mi Curzon

about point x.

MiC's letter

seams virtually t

ignone

What

but

Jove

Dear Wilford,

some in mine

What about Toy arbitration. Pl.comsult Finance Dept.

THE BUILDING OF THE SNAKE FENCE IN HONG KONG

る

1.

New %.

H.K. Dept

Thank you for your letter of 14 February about the snake fence built in Hong Kong during the internal security situation that developed in the colony in 1967. Defence Votes have now been paid for all the assistance provided to the Hong Kong Government at that time with the exception of two items:

2.

a.

b.

The stores required for the snake fence at a cost of £173,340

Stores provided for additional works services at the border costing £20,691.

-(3|દ

So far as the snake fence is concerned, paragraph 6 of your Hong Kong telegram 1320 makes it clear that it was an essential feature to control illegal immigration. Possibly one could regard illegal immigration as an external threat, but it is scarcely an external military threat, which is no doubt the reason why no-one here in Whitehall regarded the obstacle as a Defence responsibility. The Ministry of Defence made it quite clear in Cass's letter of 13 September 1967 to Hall that we expected to be reimbursed for the expenditure incurred on stores for the snake fence, and it was accepted in Hall's reply of 4 October 1967 that this was not a proper charge to Defence Votes. Moreover, we were subsequently advised by our Command Secretary that the Hong Kong Government wished this question to be dealt with separately from the negotiations on other internal security costs incurred by MOD, since they were under the impression that your Department was going to bear the costs of the fence.

3.

So far as the stores provided for other border works are concerned, these were required in connection with Operation Highland Bonnet during which basic accommodation requirements such as latrines, ablutions and cookhouses were constructed at military expense for British troops deployed to the border. They were also required to implement measures taken for the

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