TNAG-2238-FCO40-3217-Future-of-Hong-Kong-Royal-Navy-presence-1991 — Page 107

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FROM: M.S.BAKER-BATES

UTH ATLANTIC & ANTARCTIC DEPT 11 February 1991

11/2 HKB 063/1

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conversation your

cc. PS/MrGarel-Jones PS/PUS, Mr McLaren

Mr Broomfield, Mr Goulden NPDD, Mr Beamish (or)

1. With reference to your minute of 4 February to Mr Beamish about

with Lord Buxton, we have been hearing rumours for some weeks that certain people in the MOD would like to put an end to the work of HMS ENDURANCE, possibly this year. These rumours were strengthened when the First Sea

Sea Lord and the Comptroller of the Navy met the Parliamentary Maritime Group not long ago and sidestepped questions about the future of the ship.

2. On the surface, however, the position is rather different. About a month ago the naval side of the MOD circulated a draft paper within the MOD and to us which recommended that ENDURANCE should be replaced as planned in 1996 at a cost of some £60 million and that a full scale feasibility study, costing £5 million, should now be undertaken. I wrote to the MOD to support

support these recommendations and pointed out that replacement in 1995 was in line with policy laid down by Mrs Thatcher when she discussed ENDURANCE with Lords Shackleton and Buxton in June 1939. I asked that if a change of policy were proposed the issue should be submitted to Ministers and that meanwhile the FCO should be kept in the picture.

3. ENDURANCE remains the best known symbol of our commitment to the Falklands to-day, and lack of commitment when the MOD wished to withdraw the vessel in 1981. To recapitulate the history briefly, in spite of strong representations by the then Foreign Secretary(Lord Carrington) a decision to withdraw ENDURANCE was announced in Parliament on 30 June 1981. The Falklands Council reacted very strongly. Newspapers articles followed saying that we were abandoning the protection of the Islands. Intelligence reports indicated that the Argentines thought SO too. Lord Carrington wrote again to the Defence Secretary in January 1982 pointing to the level of public concern and suggesting the matter should be discussed. Mr Nott declined to reverse his decision, which Mrs Thatcher endorsed in the House on 9 February. Lord Carrington made one further fruitless representation to the Defence Secretary in mid-February and