TNAG-1154-FCO40-1434-Visits-by-Members-of-Parliament-(MPs)-to-Hong-Kong-1982 — Page 179

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MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE EXPENDITURE COMMITTEE

9 December 1975] Mr RJ ANDREW, Mr J M PARKIN,

Mr W G MANN, Captain T H BRADBURY, RN, and Group Captain F D G CLARK

course, be paying a large part of the bill by that time. As to what type of craft it should be, we have a fairly open mind at the moment. Suggestions have been made for some quite sophisticated vessels; but there would obviously cost a lot of money and I think it would be hard to justify for this sort of role a very sophisticated vessel. My guess would be that when the time comes to replace them it will be more a question of taking something off the shelf, if I can so describe it, rather than designing a special custom-built vessel of which only a comparatively small number would be required.

Mr Finsberg

42. You do not think that the purpose would be better served by having some sort of fast patrol boat which is equip- ped with a marine ship-to-ship missile?

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-This is certainly a possibility. I do not think that anything quite of the sort you mention is in service or planned for the Royal Navy at the moment because the task in Hong Kong is a unique one. We have looked at various types. There is a class of vessel known as the Bird class, which costs between £11 and £2 million; there is another, more elabor- ate, design known as the Tenacity class, which I believe would cost between £5 and £6 million a time, and there are the commercial types of craft of the type I had in mind when I said "off the shelf," which I believe would cost something of the order of £3 million. These are all possibilities but we are a long way from a decision because, as I mentioned, it would be the early 1980's before these craft need replacement. I do not know whether Captain Bradbury would like to add anything from a Naval Officer's point of view on this point. (Captain Bradbury.) No. I think it is true that the task out there is not in Naval terms a very sophisticated task and, therefore, vessels of the type Mr Andrew has men- tioned would, we believe, probably be suitable, but we would have to make a full investigation before we decided on the replacement of the existing patrol craft in the early 1980's.

43. Are you not saying, in fact, that the real task there is that of a maritime

[Continued

police force and not the Royal Navy?

(Mr Andrew.) I think we would say that the task of the Royal Navy is to complement the capabilities of the police. This is the phrase which I think I used a little earlier on when talking about the Army in its internal security role in backing up the police. There are some things which the police vessels at the moment cannot do. The Royal Naval patrol craft are a a good deal

deal more heavily armed than the present police launches and their sea-keeping qualities are better. So I think we would say there is a continuing requirement for vessels of a kind rather larger than those in use with the civil police and for the Navy to back up the police in this respect.

44. We had the answer there that a particular vessel is not normally in use in the Navy, and I then put the question, is not the job that is being asked for far more a maritime police job than a Naval job, and I really do not feel satisfied with the answer given because if the Navy does not normally do this, if it is complementing in a way which appears to be unique, would it not be wiser for the Ministry to say to the Hong Kong Government: "This is a maritime police job-over to you?” We could have said that. I suppose we could have said: "You must increase your police force because we cannot afford to keep so many soldiers in Hong Kong"; but in both cases we feel that the Armed Forces can do this particular job better than the police and that there is a task there beyond the present re- sources of the police which the Army in the one case and the Navy in the other can conveniently fulfill.

Mr Kershaw

45. Apart from being able to do the job a bit better than the police, are there not political considerations which would draw one to suppose that Peking at any rate would be unwilling to see the Hong Kong Government possessing a Navy rather than police launches?- -Yes, I think this is a factor, and I would say that on the other side of the coin it is important that we should demonstrate British commitment to Hong Kong.