CONFIDENTIAL
CONFIDENTIAL
DRAFT SIGNAL TO CBF HONG KONG
Personal for CBF from AUS(GS)
The Defence and External Affairs Sub-Committee of the
Expenditure Committee in considering its future programme has
suggested that it visit Hong Kong for up to four days starting
on Monday, 17th November.
2. On the purely practical plane I understand the party might
be up to a dozen in number. They normally expect to stay at
hotels or in a Service Mess, as convenient. The Chairman of
the Sub-Committee, Sir Harwood Harrison could be expected to
appreciate an invitation to stay with a senior officer, if that
were practicable. The suggested date no doubt represents the
Sub-Committee's initial preference, but is very much open to
negotiation.
3. As to the acceptability of proposed visits by the Sub-Committee
from policy viewpoints, Ministers naturally wish to meet the
Sub-Committee's wishes to the maximum possible extent, although
we are not obliged to accept their proposals if there are strong
reasons for not doing so. At the moment, as far as we know,
the Sub-Committee has no special objectives in mind in suggesting
Hong Kong, but these are early days, and it is possible that, in
the event, they will turn their attention to the basic issues of
the size of the Garrison and the financial arrangements for it.
This might create considerable awkwardness, if in the late autumn we were still negotiating with the Hong Kong Government
on these matters, but on the whole the initial view here and in the FCO is that we should assume that a settlement will by then
be reached and that it would not be very plausible to suggest to
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