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I have been told about the political difficulties you
face on this issue and fully see that you may need to deploy arguments locally that may be quite different from those that we shall need to use to obtain interdepartmental agree-
ment on a revised level of contribution. Clearly you must
take account of the political realities of the situation in
Hong Kong.
I know about the exchanges now proceeding at official
level with a view to agreeing a figure for the new rate of
contribution. I hope that agreement can be reached;
that
the figure proves acceptable to your Councils and can then be put forward as an "offer" by the Hong Kong Government. If we can achieve a solution along these lines it should
help to smooth the political difficulties.
IM
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