"C" Force was the Canadian military contingent involved in the Battle of Hong Kong, in December 1941. Members of the force were the first Canadian soldiers to see action in World War II. The major Canadian units involved in the defence of Hong Kong were the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada. In addition to this the Canadians provided a Brigade HQ. Deterrence Diplomacy During the course of 1941, Japan's foreign policy assumed an increasingly aggressive posture towards the Western powers. In July 1941 Japan occupied the southern half of French Indochina, leading to the United States, Great Britain and the Dutch government in exile which controlled the oil-rich Netherlands East Indies (modern Indonesia) to impose an oil embargo on Japan. As Japan possessed no oil, the embargo threatened to shut down the Japanese economy once its oil reserves were exhausted. Talks were opened to find a solution to the crisis, but it was understood that there was a very real possibility that Japan might try to seize the Netherlands East Indies together with the British colonies of Sarawak, Sabah, Malaya and Burma to provide itself with oil. The British response was a policy of "deterrence diplomacy" of building up British forces in Asia in order to deter the Japanese from choosing war and to encourage Tokyo with continuing with seeking a diplomatic solution to the crisis. As part of the same strategy, Force Z, a force of one battleship, one battlecruiser, and three destroyers was ordered to Singapore to provide a deterrent. A major problem with the British "deterrence diplomacy" was in 1941 Britain was fully engaged in war with Germany and Italy, and it was not possible to build up the level of forces in Asia that could truly deter the Japanese. In a memo, Major-General A. E. Grasett (the outgoing Commander of British Troops in China, and a Canadian himself) argued that increasing the size of the Hong Kong garrison would have "a strong psychological stimulus" and a "salutary effect on the Japanese". Grasett's memo stated that extra two battalions could be "found" in Canada, through he also noted that any "troops supplied by Canada would be practically untrained". However, since the purpose of the Canadian troops in Hong Kong would be to deter the Japanese, not actually fight them, Grasett argued that this would not matter. Grasett's memo was endorsed by the Foreign Secretary,