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(together with British Store promotions, and other pro-British activities, including cultural manifestations) at the time of the inauguration of the Tunnel. I do not favour a full British Week in the normal sense of the expression but only carefully selected elements of one.
These are just rough ideas which I hope to thrash out with the people concerned in the next few months. At present we are fully occupied with a succession of Trade Missions which we are looking after and which so far seem to have been remarkably successful. Since I arrived here in August, we have had Missions from the London Chamber of Commerce, the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, the Wool Textile Export Corporation and the British Lighting Association. Next week we have the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce Mission and in 1970 we already have about eight Missions booked and others still coming in.
It looks, therefore, as if U.K. interest in the Hong Kong market is increasing, and if I may say so, it is none too soon. We have had one or two rather nasty shocks recently when orders have been lost to our competitors, especially the Japanese. The worst case was that of a £5 million order for electric generating plant ordered by Hong Kong Electric Co. which went to a Japanese firm. Another disappointment was an order for telephone equipment which was won by a German firm. Although relatively small, this order has opened the door to the Germans who are making it a first class effort compared with much dilatory and inefficient handling by their British competitors.
These are both firms which as public utilities have traditionally bought British and it is all the more discouraging that they have now felt obliged to go elsewhere. With the competition of low prices and quick deliveries by the Japanese, it is perhaps understandable though nonetheless disappointing. Where the winning competitor is German or American, there is less excuse.
We
One must, of course, keep a sense of proportion. have recently had some very important orders from Hong Kong. There have been the generating plants ordered by the China Light & Power Co. from G.E.C./E.E. and ancillary equipment from e.g. B.I.C.C., A. Reyrolle & Co. Ltd., and, of course, the Cross Harbour Tunnel project itself. Platt Bros. (Sales) Ltd. recently sold textile equipment worth £300,000. to a Hong Kong firm, their first order in the Colony for several years.
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