SECRET UK EYES A
by cheaper and radically different forces based solely on internal security requirements. The Gurkha battalions are already significantly cheaper than their UK counterparts; and their light equipment and support scales offer little room for economies. But in any event we cannot agree that the garrison's only role is internal security. There is a threat, albeit remote, of limited aggression from the Chinese People's Republic which the garrison must be capable of at least identifying. So long as Hong Kong continues as a Crown Colony, the defence forces stationed there must be capable of facing up to both threats, which could well occur simultaneously.
3. The soldiers of the garrison are trained in a general purpose role because it makes neither military nor economic sense to maintain separate forces to meet the different tasks arising from the varied nature of the threat. We are satisfied that the proposed composition of the garrison is commensurate with its predominantly IS role and the limited threat to the territorial integrity of the Colony. You will have seen that the artillery regiment to which you refer will be reduced to a battery; and this could, of course, be used in the infantry role if desired.
4. Unless, therefore, HMG is to shed some of its constitutional responsibility for the Colony, the proposed structure and nature of the garrison must, in our view, remain essentially as now planned. If HMG is prepared to disregard the threat of external aggression, the specific IS role might possibly be undertaken by a gendarmerie of the type you envisage; but the MOD could not properly be responsible for such a force.
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Yours ever
peter Hochade
A. P. HOCKADAY.
SECRET
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