TNAG-0479-FCO40-544-Strength-of-garrison-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 44

SECRET UK EYES A

Options

9. This has been a very wide-ranging Review;

we examined

various radical solutions involving the re-allocation of

resources from one sphere of defence activity to another, for

example:

the placing of half our anti-submarine forces in

reserve;

the reduction, or even the cancellation, of our share

of the large collaborative programme for the European

multi-role combat aircraft;

the abandonment of the whole of our specialist

reinforcement capability;

and the major reduction in our land forces in

Germany, making good by reinforcement from the

UK.

10. There were serious drawbacks to all these options and to

the others we considered. If I enlarge on that involving the British Army in Germany, perhaps this will give you a feel,

however superficially, for the kind of analysis we went through. We knew from experience that the redeployment of regular formations from Germany to the UK yielded no real financial

savings and had serious operational penalties, as reinforcement forces take much longer to deploy and are not familiar with the

terrain. To reduce expenditure significantly, it would be

4

SECRET UK EYES A