Reference..
NOTE FOR RECORD
54
I attended a meeting at the Treasury on Friday,
1 September at which were present Mr. Cotterill and an
underwriter from E.C.G.D. Mr. Mackay of the Treasury
was Chairman.
2.
proposal
I confirmed that the Commonwealth Office was limited
to a guarantee of support to Hong Kong to the extent of
half the sum involved should the 100% guarantee which the
Colony was required to provide ever be invoked. We had
believed this committed £5 million at the very most, but as
the meeting broke up a Treasury officer pointed out that at
worst a further £2 million interest could be due, increasing
H.M.G's the total guarantee to £12 million and Hong Kongle share
to £6 million.
3. The Treasury proposed to require the Tunnel Company's
money to be spent first as far as possible without causing
work programme difficulties.
4.
They were also considering whether, if the Tunnel
failed to pay for pure economic reasons, H.M.G's assumption
of half the responsibility over the guarantee should still
stand; H.M.G. were involving themselves because of political
not economic/financial considerations. The consensus was that
though there was a logical reason for making this distinction
in practice it would be impossible to determine the exact reasons for the Tunnel failing to pay as political conditions
so affected economic ones.
пишевиль
P.M. Hewitt
(5.9.67)