(iii) Loan on the London market
(iv) Loan from the Commonwealth Development Corporation.
17. There is no possibility of being able to find savings of overseas expenditure of more than a minimal amount on the Board of Trade Vote;
or for that matter from the Foreign and Commonwealth Services Vote
if political grounds are held to justify a contribution. The
Treasury cannot agree to any increase in the overall Votes of
Departments for this purpose. Any contribution would therefore have to come out of funds already provided through the postponement or cancellation of other projects.
18.
The £205 million aid programme alone appears to offer the
necessary flexibility. The Ministry of Overseas Development are not,
however, prepared to provide capital aid to Hong Kong in their present
economic circumstances. They can see no justification for doing so
at the expense of other more needy countries in view of the buoyant state of the Colony's economy. To a Treasury suggestion that they
might be prepared to provide assistance if not to the development of the airport then at least for some of the Colony's pressing social needs if these would suffer as a result of Hong Kong financing the
airport project, they have replied that Hong Kong does not seem
disposed to allow social needs to suffer and, rather than see this
happen, would seem prepared to settle for no extension of the airport
or a smaller extension adequate for their needs. In their view, any
expenditure for the benefit of British civil aviation should be met
from the appropriate spending head (i.e. the Board of Trade Vote)
which is not the aid programme. Historically the ODM's view of Hong Kong's eligibility for assistance from the aid programme has its
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