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subsequent land negotiations.
To treat the Governor thus,
would make nonsense of the direction of the Defence Committee
at its meeting on 5th February, inviting "the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, in consultation with the Colonial Secretary
and the Minister of Defence, to consider whether some offer
could be made to the Hongkong Government in respect of the
War Department land in the Colony, in return for their
undertaking to meet the additional costs involved in any
over
increase in the Army garrison offer of six major units".
It would, besides, put the negotiations back where they had
begun and hence would be quite unacceptable to the Secretary
of State and to the Governor.
This question will almost certainly have to go back to
the Defence Committee. Meanwhile, we are asking the Governor
to make do with your helpful promise of the short-term move
of one battalion from Malaya for the riot period. Pending
fresh consideration in Defence Committee, my Secretary of
ssment State would be very glad to learn your present of the
importance of getting these two units stationed in Hongkong.
In short, with reference to the controversy mentioned in
above
have
my second paragraph, are the units in your view an imperial
necessity, or are they a luxury, for which H.M. Goverment
should not pay?
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