§ Rear-Admiral Morgan Gilesasked the Secretary of State for Defence what is the annual budgetary cost of the present garrison in Hong Kong; and what proportion of the cost is in foreign exchange.
§ Mr. Reynolds:As my right hon. Friend has explained previously, we cannot give a meaningful figure of budgetary costs of forces in a particular area, because a given Service formation, wherever based, commonly has more than one rô le, and because arbitrary conventions would have to be used in allocating between theatres such major elements as the related costs of the home base.
On the second part of the Question, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Bury St. Edmunds (Mr. Eldon Griffiths) on 4th December, 1968 by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for the Royal Navy.—[Vol. 774, c. 489–90.]