Parliamentary Unit
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CONFIDENTIAL
ONFID
cc PS/Lord Belstead
Mr Donald
S&
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(74)
PQ HONG KONG SEAMEN KILLED IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC
1.
I submit a draft written reply to a PQ put down by
Sir Anthony Royle MP. It has been cleared with the Ministry
of Defence.
subject.
See (86
2. This is the second PQ which Sir Anthony has asked on this
The background is in my minute on the earlier Question.
3. Sir Anthony, who spoke to Lord Belstead about this on
25 June, wishes to be helpful to Hong Kong by drawing attention
to the part played by Hong Kong seamen in the South Atlantic.
However, in fact, the Question is embarrassing because:
a) There is no reason why Hong Kong should be pressed to
contribute extra money to help seamen who were serving
Hong Kong Telno 668 makes clear that the Hong Kong
Government would find such a suggestion difficult.
(73) HK would regans extre
British monly Responsibility.
As or
HMG.
b) There is a potential problem over the terms under which
the Hong Kong seamen on Royal Fleet Auxiliaries (RFAs)
were included in the Task Force. Some of them have
claimed that they were given verbal assurances that they
would not be sent into the front line. The Ministry of
Defence have not publicly confirmed this but have told
us that they understand some unrecorded undertakings
were given. There certainly was some discontent among
RFA crews as a result. The survivors from the SIR TRISTRAM
and the SIR GALAHAD will arrive in Hong Kong on 26 June
and further publicity may be given to the allegations
CONFIDENTIAL
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