TNAG-0895-FCO40-1105-Refugees-from-Vietnam-in-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-boat-people-1979 — Page 144

From:

General Finance Division 3

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

Main Building Whitehall London SW1A 2HB

Telephone 01-218 6950 (Direct Dialling)

HKK 2431

KELDIVEO m £7/NSAM NO. 51

Hong Kong Dept

01-218 9000

(Switchboard)

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Downing Street

LONDON SW1

WIDEX

N

Your reference

Our reference

D/GF3/29/1/21(GF3b2)

Date

July 1979

1462)

PHOTO RECONNAISSANCE

HONG KONG

itit, 418, 393

1. You will remember that in February 1979 the Hong Kong Government requested the provision of a Canberra aircraft to reconnoitre the Hong Kong area to spot incoming refugee vessels.

2. The aircraft was provided during March and April 1979 and flew just under 91 hours on behalf of the Hong Kong Government.

3. When the question of costs was first raised a rate of £800 per flying hour was quoted by us as being an adequate figure to cover the "extra costs" and crew costs. Since this figure was given to the Hong Kong Government it could not subsequently be changed and i formed the basis of the bill for £72,466.67 presented in May 1979.

4. Unbeknown in advance to the finance divisions the RAF in fact provided three crews of two in order to allow rotation and the extra personnel costs such as LOA and subsience were greater than anticipated. Because of accommodation difficulties (Royal visit and lack of ready space) combined with the nature of the task, the subsience bill was very large. In addition the rate quoted was insufficient to cover the costs of the Joint Service Intelligence Staff for air photo prints and negatives. A reconciliation statement is at Annex A.

5. The Canberra task was carried out for the benefit of Hong Kong rather than MOD. Whilst there was some training spin-off to the Department this was reflected in the "extra cost" level. In fact the requirement was extended and precluded RAF participation in the Integrated Air Defence System exercise in Malaysia, so there was some disruption of MOD plans. For these reasons we should be grateful if you would consider accepting the acess charge of £5472.24 to FCO votes.

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1416/8