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be made available for a proportion of families to return to UK before
the start of the Autumn term in 1996. This plan needs to be endorsed
as soon as possible in order that HQ UKLF can give due thought to long
term quartering problems.
Defence Lands.
56. The question of the Defence Estate in Hong Kong is a a major
unresolved issue in the JLG and has implications on the withdrawal
process, though not necessarily directly.
57. All of the Defence Estate in Hong Kong is now owned by the HKG.
If the HKG wishes to use a military site for another purpose, and
British Forces can carry out their role from an alternative location,
the HKG will fund the reprovisioning. The HKG's original intention
had been to move the Garrison out of all its urban sites as early as
possible prior to 1997 and to redevelop them so as to deny their use
to the PLA. The PRC, however, has insisted that it wishes to inherit
the existing Defence Estate more or less whole and entire. Apart from
our unilateral decision, to which the Chinese have taken exception,
to reprovision the naval base from HMS TAMAR to Stonecutters' Island,
the issue is entirely deadlocked. If, as seems likely, it remains
unresolved in the JLG, HMG and HKG will soon have to consider the
extent to which they wish to take further unilateral decisions on
redeveloping Defence sites.
58. From the point of view of the Garrison's interests alone, the
later such moves take
take place the better since the less will be the disruption caused. However, timely redevelopment, at a decent
interval before 1997, is necessary if HKG's motives are not to be
entirely transparent. For this reason, therefore, HQ BFHK has been
willing to accommodate any reprovisioning proposals which do not
impair operational effectiveness. Particularly critical sites are the
Headquarters itself, which is not necessarily affected by the move of
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