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Mr Mae PS/FUS
PS
SECRET
190'
Mr. Sinder. Harod HKLOD Spoken Private Secretary.
Lord Gorommy Roberts will be minuting separately to sos on this. P/A.
DEFENCE REVIEW: HONG KONG
Aos 22!!!
1.
The Permanent Under-Secretaries' Steering Committee met on
15 November to discuss the text of the parliamentary statement for delivery on 3 December.
2.
The Steering Committee had before it a draft passage on Hong Kong, put forward by the FCO and agreed with the Governor, which
read as follows:
"We shall of course maintain our obligations towards our remaining Dependent Territories. There will however be consultation with the Hong Kong Government about the level of forces appropriate in the present circumstances and about
how the cost of these forces should be divided between us and
them when the present cost-sharing agreement runs out in 1976."
3. The Treasury, the Ministry of Defence and Sir John Hunt thought that Ministers would wish to mention more specifically the contribution they expected Hong Kong to make to its own defence, and in the draft statement which the Cabinet is to consider on 20 November (para 8 of C(74)133) the formula used is:
4.
"We intend to keep our forces in Hong Kong, although we propose to make some reductions in them and to seek from the Hong Kong Government a larger percentage of their cost when the present cost-sharing agreement runs out in 1976."
We have consulted Sir Murray MacLehose about the impact that the second version might have in Hong Kong.. His advice is that, while it is accepted by the official side of the Hong Kong Government as an accurate statement of HMG's objective, it could easily provoke public debate in Hong Kong with a hardening of opposition on the proposition "We won't pay more money for less
garrison".
SECRET
/5. The
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