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viable if the only official pump-priming were the Council's own £250,000 already in Hong Kong.
5.
Although this Department was not directly involved in these discussions with the Council, we expressed doubts at an earlier stage about the priority to be accorded to this proposal because to some extent it appeared to duplicate the existing UK/Hong Kong Scholarship Scheme. These doubts were shared by the Hong Kong Government. However, we understood that it was a proposal to which the Council's top management attached particular importance. We were therefore somewhat surprised when the Council decided to drop the scheme altogether rather than seeking to include the proposal in this year's PES bid.
6. Perhaps the main lesson to learned from this episode is the need to ensure that in future the Council do not count their PES chickens before they are hatched. As you will have seen from FCO telno 1032, this is a point which we have stressed in connection with the proposed Immersion English Language Training Scheme which has been included in this year's PES bid. Any premature announcement about an allocation for this from the PES award would seriously queer the pitch with the Treasury.
Yours Sincerely Alan Panc
A R Paul
Hong Kong Department
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