:
CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL
N'Adago
HKIDA will do this for
tomorrow.
SECRETARY OF STATE
attached 3/2/11
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Hong Kong Mass Transit
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You have seen the attached message from Mr.
Peter Walker to the Governor and minute from him to the
Prime Minister.
You will see the tone of both is tough
At
and somewhat threatening to Sir Murray MacLehose's personal
position.
2.
It may well be that the Governor has let us down,
especially as seen through the eyes of the DTI. But it
is difficult to be quite so categorical.
We and perhaps even
the DTI are not well placed to pass a firm judgment on the
commercial assessment made by the Japanese or the Anglo/
Italian Consortium.
What is certain is that the Anglo/Italian
Consortium did not get going with a serious bid nearly early
enough and that it took numerous messages by the Governor to
getting either the Consortium or the DTI to take the situation
seriously. It is possible that by the time they did so it was
virtually too late. When they did finally improve the offer it
may be that it was reasonably close to the Japanese offer and
that the Governor both exaggerated the difference and pressed
too hard to get the Consortium to go beyond a position which it
regarded as commercially prudent. In such a technical matter it
/is very
CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL