(16413) Dd.244353 100m 6/72 G.W.B.Ltd. Gp.863
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
•
CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL
PERSONAL
DRAFT
To:-
His Excellency
Sir Murray MacLehose
KCMG MBE
Governor
HONG KONG
Type 1 +
FROM
Sir D Watson
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
MASS TRANSIT RAILWAY
1.
Thank you for your letter of 16 February and
for the copy of the ExCo paper, which has now
arrived. We will of course treat these papers with
due discretion, bearing in mind that they were sent
to us as the administering power and not for British
commercial advantage.
it
2. We have, however, hoisted in the message that a
decision for or against a consortium approach has
to be taken before the end of March and that the
consortium may have to get close to a fixed price
package if they are to keep abreast both of the other
consortia and of the alternative multi-contract
approach. We have passed on the message to the
consortium that they would be wise to send their
decision takers, rather than their number twos, to
the remaining rounds of discussions.
3. We have also noted your point that some of your
experts do not go along with the preference for
multi-contracts expressed in the ExCo paper.
As an
outsider's comment, however, I do slightly wonder
whether the form which the paper has taken does not
to some extent preempt subsequent discussion and
make it very difficult for an honest consortium bid
It seems that the onus is now on each
to succeed.
/of the