NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
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Originally the local military authorities in Hong
Kong decided to withdraw this claim on de minimis
grounds since it had become an irritant and
impediment to the settlement of the larger issues.
However, since no such settlement has yet been
reached they have revived the claim.
9. If Hong Kong were prepared to accept
liability for the border fence we might be able to
persuade the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury
to forego claims for the other two items.
However,
if you maintain that none of the items in question
(or any part of them) is a legitimate charge to
the Hong Kong Government, then we shall, I fear,
need very much stronger arguments from you than we
•
at present possess, particularly in respect of the
border fence, if we are to stand any hope whatever
of persuading the Treasury to accept liability.
10.
Regardless of the merits of the matter we
could, of course, make the point (if you confirm
its validity) that the possibility of persuading
your Finance Committee to vote the funds required
to meet any part of these outstanding charges is
negligible, (for the reason given in paragraph 6
above); and that it would probably be necessary
to use the reserve powers in order to get the money
from Hong Kong. But I fear that this argument
will have lost some credence with the Treasury
since we made great play with it during the defence
contribution negotiations and were proved to be
wrong in the end. You told me some time ago
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/that