JOSE MINUTE
CONFIDENTIAL
Head of Fl(Air)/4398
AUS (GS)
Copy to:
AUS (CF)
Head of DS6
DS1 (Mr Jones)
DDAQ
Treasury (Mr Hansford) FCO (Mr O'Keefe)
DOE/PSA (Mr Aggleton)
223
cc. Dofeine Sept.
Mr. Haryan.
HONG KONG DEFENCE CONTRIBUTION
The meetings held on 17th and 18th July 1975 with representatives of the Hong Kong Government led by Mr Davies (Secretary for Security) and attended by Treasury, FCO and DOE/PSA, have resulted in a revised draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which has been agreed at official level on both sides. This is at Annex,
2. The meetings, which you chaired initially, were wholly devoted to the Memorandum of Understanding of which paragraph 2 has to remain blank until it is decided what the Hong Kong Government should be asked to contribute and what agreement can be reached with them.
3. The main point in the minds of the Hong Kong representatives was to secure a document which could help to sell an increased Defence contribution to the unofficials, Since the Governor had led the unofficials to believe that he would be putting overall proposals to them before August (and this now looked extremely unlikely), he would wish to be able to show them something by way of progress and the outlines of an agreed MOU would be particularly valuable,
4.
5.
Points which Hong Kong had particularly in mind were: -
a.
b.
c.
the need to show an adequate capital works programme,
provision to ensure they would not be adversely affected by exchange rate fluctuations
some opportunity to raise questions and to have reviews on various elements in Garrison costs bearing in mind that they would be meeting a
much greater part of these costs than at present.
So far as it was possible, and always subject to the terms of the MOU being conditioned by a satisfactory overall agreement having been reached, I believe we have been able to meet the wishes of the Hong Kong Government without conceding anything vital on our part.
1
CONFIDENTIAL
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