13
SECRET AND PERSONAL
HICK
18211
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH
RJT McLaren Esq CMG Political Adviser
Government Secretariat
HONG KONG
Telephone 01233 3134
**X
No
Your reference
счё
415
161115
Our reference
Date
HKK 182/1
17 March 1982
Dear Robin,
REPLACEMENT AIRPORT
1.
3
Seelib
In paragraph 4 of your letter of 8 February you said that you would be writing separately on the question of possible Chinese financial participation in an airport. In advance of this I thought
it would be worth writing to ask your current views on the general interrelationship of the airport project and the question of the future. This arises partly because during a visit to Hong Kong in mid-February David Durie of PEP1 in the DOI was told (in strict confidence) by David Jeaffreson that Schroder Chartered would shortly be selected to advise the Hong Kong Government on financial strategy for the project and on the likely cost of a new airport 'should the 1997 lease problem remain unresolved'.
2. I found this interesting because at first sight such a remit to Schroders would seem to invite them to confine themsleves to a pretty negative recommendation. (The prospect of a possible cut-off of return on airport investment in 1997 and the likely depressing effect on land values of the Kai Tak site by the late 1980s would hardly suggest an attractive deal for investors or the Hong Kong Government). Would Schroders in fact be given a variety of options on the future to consider and, if so, how would their terms of reference be phrased? I can see that it is a pretty delicate field and one which could in itself affect confidence. Of course I realise that the Hong Kong Government will need to know more about the prospects on the future before taking a final decision on airport project. But it would be helpful at any rate to have your personal views on how the Schroder study may be handled meanwhile.
BU3 weeks
ESE 17/3
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17/3
Yins
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R D Clift
Hong Kong and General Department
Noted
BUS Zwecks
2011
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SECRET AND PERSONAL
At 2014
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