equipment could be provided from U.S. carriers when
required and that, in order to find out whether this
was practicable, next time the U.S. 7th Fleet was in
Hong Kong the equipment should be tested under cover of
what he called a "test of evacuation arrangements".
That suggestion was apparently made because the Americans
had strong objections to testing the equipment in such a
way that it looked as though they were taking part in a
defence exercise.
3.
Since then the Commanders-in-Chief's Committee
in the Far East has been informed that the United States
Government has authorised the despatch of the nęcessary
equipment (U.H.F. and I.F.F. Mk. 10 sets) to the U.S.
Assistant Naval Attaché in Hong Kong. One set is to be
delivered to the R.A.F. and the others are to be kept
by the Americans until, as they say, "the need for their
use arises either for combined training exercises or in
the case of emergency".
4.
We realise that it would be out of the question
to have an evacuation exercise as a cover for the test
mentioned in para. 3,
Land it seems that the Americans may not intend to follow
up that suggestion.
The potential value of American
support in the event of hostilities involving Hong Kong
is however so great that, as you will agree, we must show
the best spirit of cooperation possible without detriment
to the present security of the Colony. "Combined training
cover for a test exercises" look like a more promising/possibility, but we
realise that even these might be objectionable if they
went much beyond the sort of routine training activity
which occurs all the time, and particularly if they involved
the presence of American ships and aircraft in unusual
numbers or formations,
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5.Pages Adriralty is about to send a signal to the
!
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Commander-in-Chief
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