SECRET UK EYES A LOCSEN
necessarily linked to that of the British garrison, tensions
emanating from the DCA negotiations had diminished and the
kind of pressures the marine and land Police might be put
under in the run-up to 1997 were acknowledged. The
sentiment leaning towards an early removal of the garrison had receded and had been replaced by a more pragmatic acceptance of the contribution in the area of sovereignty
that it could make both on land and in territorial waters.
In addressing the latter function, CBF counselled against a solution less effective than that currently provided by
the 3 PEACOCK vessels. There were 2 reasons for his
observation, first, that the move was vulnerable to
political misinterpretation,
and, second, there was a financial angle; removal and subsequent disposal of the
vessels could oblige the matter being brought before LEGCO
with the potential for dispute between MOD and the Hong Kong
Government. In summary, CBF said he felt all these factors must be taken into account in order to pre-empt unnecessary
frictions.
18. In stating that he believed them in principle to be
well understood on Whitehall, the Chairman thanked CBF for
reminding the Committee of the many factors involved.
He
added that he considered it right and proper to commence
from an empirical point of view of
view of what the maritime
requirement might be. Once this view had been developed,
he hoped that it might be shared with CBF in order to seek
his opinion as to the extent to which it satisfied the
military commitment. This was an essentially military
process which would then have to be tested to see if it satisfied other parties, specifically, the Hong Kong and Chinese Governments. Invited by the Chairman to add his
observations, AUS (C) commented that, because of a number of
political and financial overlays, this was
this was not simply a
military issue. He added that he felt the most satisfactory
way of proceeding would be for DN Plans to go ahead as
described with his proposals then being set against these
LOCSEN SECRET UK EYES A
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