TNAG-0538-FCO40-633-Strength-of-garrison-in-Hong-Kong-1975 — Page 37

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b.

C.

d.

Temporary air deployments to the Southern Region.

Provision of offensive air support to North East

Italy.

An option for a land force to deploy to North

Fast Italy.

Whether these could be accommodated without significant extra

peacetime costs depends on the extent to which our NATO Allies

would be willing to provide help with transport and "host"

facilities to enable us to carry out these measures. I propose

that they should be more fully studied before discussing them with

our Allies, but should be referred to in my reply to the Secretary

General of NATO. I would not expect to press forward with these

studies as a matter of urgency, and I would, of course, refer any

significant proposals to the OPD Committee before making any formal

proposal to NATO.

13. My proposed reply to the Secretary General of NATO is at

Annex C.

Public Presentation

14. I propose to include in the forthcoming Defence White Paper

the draft passage at Annex D, which reflects the substance of this

paper.

15. My 'proposals are in all substantial details wholly in line with

the defence resource decisions reached by the Cabinet before my

Statement in the House on 3rd December. They are therefore wholly

consistent with the Government's economic strategy and cause no

presentational problems on this score.

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