CONFIDENTIAL
CONFIDENT I AL
of issues of direct defence significance, notably freedom of
navigation and overflight, as well as more general issues such as
fishing rights, access to seabed resources, and pollution control.
The Ministry of Defence played a full part in the work of the
United Kingdom delegation at the first substantive session of the
Conference in Caracas in Summer 1974 and is similarly involved at
the present session of the Conference which began in Geneva on
17 March 1975.
Offshore Interests
49. The increasing scale and importance of British offshore
interests and the need to safeguard them is extending the work of
the Services in support of the appropriate civil authorities. The
main new development is the exploitation of the gas and oil
resources of the Continental Shelf. To meet these additional
duties, five new vessels will be built for distant
patrols in our offshore waters, which will fill the gap between
the small mine countermeasures vessel, at present used for coastal
fishery protection work, and the frigate; and also a number of
existing RAF aircraft will be modified for offshore surveillance work.
Meanwhile, the present system of patrols by aircraft and frigates
in the area of the offshore oil installations will be supplemented
by the deployment of two additional Royal Navy vessels later this
year. One of these will be a specially equipped tug, the Reward,
and the other, the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for
Scotland's fishery protection vessel, Jura, which will be taken on
loan and manned by the Royal Navy as a warship.
Energy Conservation
50. Faced with oil shortages and steeply rising prices, the Services further tightened their control over fuel consumption
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