Our reference: 6/6/5
Your reference:
CONFIDENTIAL
BRITISH TRADE COMMISSION IN HONG KONG
7th Floor, Shell House, Queen's Road, Central, HONG KONG Mail Address: P.O. Box No. 528, Hong Kong Cable Address: "Uktrade Hongkong"
Dear Banning.
Telephone- 230176
28 February, 1969
R&R
PART
R
6.
Ay Stewart-
Tom
This is my second newsletter to you. Since I last wrote
y time has been heavily employed with visiting trade missions and with a visit by Peter Tennant, the Director General of the British National Export Council. The tunnel has never been far from my thoughts and so I shall kick off with that involved problem.
The Tunnel
2
#1
At last 3.C.G.D. have given us an expose' of their position. I conveyed this to Clague et al and we must await their reaction. The Wheelock Marden Board are meeting here at the moment and
resumably something will come out of that. Clague keeps on telling me that he wants to open fullscale negotiations with 3.C.G.D., but we shall see. It does not look as if Cowperthwaite is now going to make his quick trip to Britain to discuss this matter. The Governor's "speech from the throne before the Budget Session had a paragraph on the tunnel designed to indicate to the public that if there was delay it was not the Government's fault. Unless the French make this an entirely political deal, I continue to entertain modest hopes that the British offer will win through in the end. I sent you a Christian telegram suggesting that we should have a P which would en ble my Information Section to find solid ground in their attempts to get this matter treated as a purely comercial consideration. Already, now that the news has broken of E.C.G.D. re-entering the lists, the South China Morning Post and other newspapers are beginning' to draw political conclusions from the progress of the negotiations. I intend to hold a
to
non-attributable briefing for the Editor of the S.C.M.P. make to him points a), b) and c) which I set out in my Christian 3 telegram.
Kai Tak xtension
Basing myself on recently made
He said that if the
11
•
In other
3. This problem continues to fester here. your lack of optimism about the outcome I pessimistic noises at John Cowperthwaite. loan is refused he hopes that "Hong Kong will have the strength to resist ressure to do the extension on her own' words his tactics in this matter are exactly the same as for the tunnel. They are both schemes which he feels are not essential for the progress of Hong Kong. If they can be carried out at somebody else's risk and expense so well and- good,
W. S. Carter, Esq., Hong Kong Department
LAST
REF.
RECEIVED IN ARCHIVES No.31
Every effort is made to ensure that the information given herein is accurate in nollegal responsibile accepted for any errors or omi-AR 1969
sions in that information and no responsibility is accepted in regard to the standing of any firms, companies, or individuals mentioned.
CONFIDENTIAL
JAKKG/S/3