Registry N
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential,
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
CC
In Confidence
Chancellor of the
Exchequer
Defence Secretary
Sir J Hunt
SECRET
DRAFT
LETTER.
:",
To:
Prime Minister
DEFENCE REVIEW
Type 1 +
FROM
Secretary of State
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
1. I have seen the Chancellor of the Exchequer's minute to you of 8 August suggesting that we should not delay consultations with our non-NATO allies about our proposed reductions East of Suez and in
the Mediterranean.
2. I do not think we can start these until we
have consulted the Americans about the outcome
of the Defence Review as a whole, as we have always
intended to do. This consultation with the
Americans will be even more important now as au example of the way we hope to develop Anglo-US relations under Mr Ford, and I am sure that they would react unfavourably if we were to ask them to comment on our plans for non-NATO areas but could not talk to them about the NATO area at the same
time.
3.
However, 1 think we can move ahead on some questions. We are already in touch with the Governor of Hong Kong about future force levels there in the light of the OPD discussion on 1 August. When we are ready for formal discussions with the Hong Kong Government, we could go ahead without needing to consult the Americans in advance, assuming that we intend to keep
forces of a reasonable size. At that stage we could tell our Cabinet colleagues what we are
SECRET
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