(17865) Dd.145178 400m 5/73 G.W.B.Ltd, Gp.863
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
The Governor is aware of the importance that
HMG attaches to winning this contract for Britain
and of the difficult repercussions which a decision
to validate only the Japanese bid would have in the
UK. The Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary has
confirmed this to him most recently in a personal
ne Royli
message on 7 December. PCO Ministers will be
reinforcing this again today in the light of the
Governor's latest reaction. Beyond this, despite
the theoretical constitutional subordination of
Hong Kong, there are limits to our practical power to
control their decisions. Apart from the difficulty,
on general grounds, of using constitutional pressure to secure commercial contracts, any attempt at for mal
direction would cause a crisis of confidence in Hong
It would also get us into great difficulties
with the Japanese.
Kong.
The best hope must now be that the Hong Kong
Government will recognise that it is in their own interest to validate the Anglo-Italian proposals for
negotiation alongside the Japanese bid.