§ Rear-Admiral Morgan Gilesasked the Secretary of State for Defence on what scale of forces he based his calculation that a military presence east of Suez would cost £300 million per year.
§ Mr. Healey:As is explained in Chapter V of Cmnd. 3357, which gives details of the force changes involved, £300 million a year is the approximate difference in cost between the programme outlined in Cmnd. 2901 and that contained in Cmnd. 3357. It is thus a conservative estimate of the cost of a viable long-term military presence east of Suez.