TNAG-0758-FCO40-962-Strength-of-UK-armed-forces-stationed-in-Hong-Kong-1978 — Page 86

From: M B Williams

Defence Secretariat Division 5

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

Main Building Whitehall London SW1A 2HB

Telephone 01-218

01-218 9000

(Direct Dialling)

(Switchboard)

Registry

Enter & rembunt

6AM 1812

CA Munro Esq

Defence Department

FCO

DPG 076/2

Дря

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY 10. 26

1 9DEC 1978

DESK OFFICER INDEX

PA

REGISTAY Action Taken

Your reference

Our reference

D/DS5/61/276/77

Date

14 December 1978

Dear Calin,

RN TASK GROUP 317.8

1. You will recall that TG 317.8 was originally planned to go round the world in a westabout direction. In October of this year the plan was reconsidered to make sure that the deployment took the Group to that part of the world where:

a.

b.

contingencies were most likely to develop; and

ships could make an obvious contribution, not already provided wholly by others, towards offsetting the political effects of a Soviet maritime presence, especially in the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean.

At the same time, we paid attention to the desirability of fulfilling as many as possible of the FCO's political requirements. CINCFLEET was instructed to plan

for TG 317.8 to deploy eastwards through the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean to Australia and New Zealand to participate in exercises already planned, returning the same way, and to include, where possible, proposals for visits to those islands in the Western Pacific to which your geographical docks attached importance.

2.

Detailed plans for the deployment have now been received, and I attach a copy of the programme. You will see that we have met most of your Department's wishes. There will be a good presence in Western Australia in July and there are plans for ship visits to the Solomon Islands (Honiara), Tuvalu (Funafuti) and the New Hebrides (Vila). The one visit which we have not been able to fit in is to the Gilbert Islands. CINCFLEET tried to arrange a visit but for geographical and other logistic reasons it proved impracticable.

3. There is one caveat I should enter. The New Zealand Navy is hosting a major exercise around which visits in the area will be planned. Unfortunately, the New Zealanders have not yet reached a final decision on dates for the exercise. This means that the dates for the Pacific Island visits and the New Zealand Assisted Maintenance Periods are still tentative and will be confirmed or adjusted when the exercise dates are known.

4. The Group is planned to sail from the United Kingdom on 8 May. Working back- wards from this date, we need to have obtained Secretary of State's approval to the deployment and to have informed NATO by mid-January. This means, I fear, that

CONFIDENTIAL