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3.
opposition, but knowing what we do
of Hong
Kong's philosophy in such matters, I think
we can also be sure of the lines which his
argument will follow. Would he not say
that in the conditions of Hong Kong it was
not correct to infer that because the
Government did not finance the tunnel scheme
itself it did not think that it was essential.
In Hong Kong public transport which is
certainly essential is in private hands. IF
finance were found from commercial sources
for the tunnel, Hong Kong could easily turn
the argument upside down against us and say
that the correctness of her decision against
Government finande for the tunnel had been
established by the eventual prone availability
of private finance
4.
ver
Leaving this argument aside, I am uneasy
at an attempt to prove that we were not
influenced by political factors in a sequence
of events where such a claim is so uncon-
Surely we would all have to admit
vincing.
that political considerations had at more
than one stage played a part and indeed were
doing so still. Even if we convinced our
audience in the U.K that we had judged the
matter solely on commercial grounds, I
cannot believe that we should convince the
Hong Kong community. We should convince
them only that in spite of the political
importance we attached to overcoming French
competition we had failed because our faith
in Hong Kong was not such as to allow us to
offer as attractive terms as the French were
able to offer.
Everyone would know that
with
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