31 MAY 31 16:29
FROM SECCO DCC)
Draft will be updated.
HONG KONG PATROL CRAFT: MOD/HONG KONG GOVERNMENT MEETING:
SUMMARY OF POSITION REACHED
PAGE.002
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1. Officials of the UK MOD and the Hong Kong government meet oneroff stald
possibly that craft 30 and 31 May 1991 to discuss the question of the continuing
retired presence of the RN patrol craft in Hong Kong after 1992. The FCO were represented.
2. The Hong Kong government made it clear that any proposal which breached the current 65%/35% share of costs as agreed in
the 1988 DCA and/or which involved going to the Finance Committee of LEGCO would cause grave political difficulty in Hong Kong. They believed that there was a continuing military rationale for retaining the patrol craft after 1992 to carry out tasks specified in the 1988 DCA. Their view was that the only solution lay in a combination of reducing the number of patrol craft from three to two and finding further financial savings in the overall cost of the garrison.
3. The Ministry of Defence re-iterated their position which was that there was no military requirement for retaining the patrol craft after 1992 and that no funds were available for doing so within a defence budget that was already severely overstretched. They could only therefore be retained if the bulk of the extra costs that would fall on the defence budget from doing so were met from other sources. If the Hong Kong government were unable to do this, it would be necessary for the Defence Secretary to approach colleagues to seek funding from other sources. If that was not forthcoming and there was no guarantee that it would the patrol craft would be withdrawn in April 1992. A settlement was needed very soon as decisions on whether or not to post manpower to Hong Kong
needed to be taken now.
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4. The Ministry of Defence view was that although a reduction from three to two vessels was a possibility, the savings accruing agreed by both sides to be no more than £2m well short of what was required. Other savings in the cost of the garrison were already largely mortgaged in efficiency
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