This brings the share of the Hong Kong
Government well within the terms of its letter
of December last year; on this point at least
the proposals must be acceptable to the
Government.
4. But I agree that there is no indication
what position the Hong Kong Government have
taken up on the proposals as a whole.
I am,
however, reluctant to ask them where they
stand at this juncture. I wrote to
Cowperthwaite last month saying that there
were no developments known to us which would
indicate that the project might now proceed and
requesting him to consult us about the terms
of any announcement which might be made about
the abandonment or shelving of the project.
I would not find it at all easy to follow this
up without leaving the impression that we were
now reacting to information received here about
developments and Cotterill has expressly asked
me to safeguard Hannam's position in all this.
I would much prefer to see what response my
letter brings or alternatively tackle
Cowperthwaite when he is here at the end of
this month. But if you and Cotterill
consider that there are strong reasons for
seeking information immediately, I suppose
I could at a pinch write to him again along
the lines that when I wrote to him earlier
I had overlooked the Company's draft proposals
in January (Annex B), would be glad to know
whether there has been any approach along
these lines and, if so, what his Government's
reactions were.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
/ 5.