CONFIDENTIAL
173
HKK BH/1
布政司 香港下亞
BY BAG 署
畢道
**** OUR REF: SCR 3/1916/58 III
REA
來函檔號 Your Ref.:
2 1 JUL 1978
GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
11 July 1978
RF-
W E QUANTRILL ESQ
INDEX
No
HONG KONG & GENERAL DEPARTMENT
F CO
Dear Bill,
$277.
Sed al
ㄓˋ
CHINESE INVESTMENT IN THE MASS TRANSIT RAILWAY
You will already have seen press accounts of the agreement between the Mass Transit Railway and a local consortium, including the C P G-owned Kiu Kwong Investments Limited, for the development of a residential and commercial site above the new depot at Tsuen Wan. The agreement was signed on 7 June and useful background to the project is given in the South China Morning Post story of 10 June (copy attached).
2.
You may be interested in the following details of the extent of Chinese involvement in the project given to David Wilson in commercial confidence (please respect) by Dr Ridley of the M T R:
(i) the Sun Company, which is developing the
site, has a guarantee signed on behalf of the Bank of China. The commercial arrangement is for a sum of HK$135 million to be handed over now to the M T R and a similar sum to be paid in regular instalments over the next five years;
(ii) the guarantee was given by the solicitors, Wu and Wu, acting on behalf of the Bank of China by virtue of a power of attorney
witnessed in the British Embassy in Peking in 1974;
(iii) the housing to be developed over the Tsuen Wan
depot site will be for sale. The sales should be made in about 1983. If the sales go well, there will then be no residual responsibility left for the bank;
CONFIDENTIAL
-/2.