TNAG-0756-FCO40-960-Strength-of-UK-armed-forces-stationed-in-Hong-Kong-1978 — Page 61

CONFIDENTIAL

-2-

bound to say that there was much concern in official circles on this point. I said there should not be, first because I still tended to think that the worst case would not happen, secondly because we had been discussing this matter with Sir Murray MacLehose since last summer and he was well aware that we were alive to the reinforcement problem. Indeed Sir M MacLe ho se had had a reassurance from me recently.

4. When Sir A Royle repeated that the Government would be well advised still to exercise patience, I said that the last Conserva- tive MP to urge him to open negotiations quickly was Sir Frederic Bennett. Sir A Royle was somewhat scathing. Sir F Bennett had gone to Brunei with General Pugh to try to persuade the Sultan to start direct recruitment of Gurkhas. Luckily they had failed. Sir A Royle recalled the last occasion in 1972/73 when the Sultan had toyed with this idea and the Conservative Government had told him, after Sir A Royle's visit to Kathmandu, that they could not possibly give their agreement.

DF Murray

16 February 1978

CONFIDENTIAL