Mr Wilford
CONFIDENTIAL
This got lost in
the works and was
not submitted in
my absence
PS Mr Royle
NICK?
HONG KONG MASS TRANSIT SYSTEM
P/A
1. Mr Grierson is coming to see Mr Royle at 10 am on 11 May.
I understand that his purpose, in his new capacity as a member
of the European Commission, is to urge on us the desirability of
a joint European approach to the Mass Transit System.
He may
have in mind either joint financing or joint construction or
both.
CONSIDERATIONS
it.
29/5
2. To modify the UK consortium bid so drastically at this
stage would confuse the Hong Kong Government badly. If we went
for a joint European approach now this would almost inevitably
mean the German-Franco-British consortium, or some variant of
This would involve modifying our support for the British
consortium led by GEC and Costains and letting in GKN. Mr Peter
Walker has said that he is unwilling to do this at this stage.
The British consortium believe that they are still ahead of the
game and stand a good chance of being awarded the contract on
their own. If subsequently they wanted partners or help, they
would be able to get it from a position of strength.
situation, some link with European companies or even the Japanese
could well be desirable. But the time is not yet.
In this
3. These considerations have led Mr Walker to conclude that we
should continue to put our whole weight behind the British
consortium bid. But they are not arguments that we can deploy
/to
CONFIDENTIAL