TNAG-0480-FCO40-545-Strength-of-garrison-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 150

RÓS Mulute

206

Собров

HK100 for oft maphy psex otheraction before cuts

Cu

Па

bantford Make

SECRET

Treasury Chambers

Parliament Street

Mr Thomson / Defence Dept London SW1P 3AG Private Secretary

Telephone 01-930 1234 ext

cu25/11

Sir Thomas Brimelow KCMG OBE

Foreign and Commonwealth Office Downing Street

London SW1

Dear Tom.

M2

4/xi

LAST

draft

22/11

21 November 1974

DEFENCE REVIEW : HONG KONG

Thank you for sending me a copy of your letter to John Hunt about the reference to Hong Kong in the draft Ministerial Statement on the Defence Review.

Whereas we recognise the points made by the Governor about likely public reaction in Hong Kong, there are equally good

2.

reasons,

seen from here, why we should be as specific as possible about the Government's intentions towards Hong Kong. The matter is now

one for Cabinet to decide when they consider the draft Parliamentary Statement on Monday. If they decided to use the more general passage suggested in your paragraph 2, we should advise the Chancellor to seek to attach two conditions. The first is that our intention to reduce the size of the Hong Kong Garrison and to seek a larger contribution to its cost should be clearly stated in answer to supplementary questions and in background briefing for the press, as the Governor has suggested. The second is that the Governor should be advised formally to take up the question of an increased defence contribution with his Executive Council as soon as possible after the Ministerial statement with the objective of negotiations reaching a conclusion before May 1975. The Governor himself does not seem to rule this out (telegram No.1029 of 16 October); and for our part we want to avoid delaying a decision on this issue until after next year's Hong Kong budget, as was earlier suggested by your Department, since this would seem to pre-empt available finance and increased tax revenue for improvements to the social programme, thus making it more difficult to secure an increased

defence contribution.

3. Copies of this letter go to the recipients of yours.

SECRET

Yours

sincerely Dangles Hanley

DOUGLAS HENLEY

ниму

Page 150Page 151