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Governor is increasingly concerned.
3.
In an effort to take things forward we have arranged for
you to chair a meeting with officials from the Treasury and
the ODA on Tuesday 12 November at 11.30 am. I submit a
draft letter for you to send to Mr Mortimer with
confirmation of these details. Our objective for the
meeting is to take matters as far as we can at official
level. We wish to reach agreement with the Treasury on our package of proposals but may have to content ourselves with smoking out their concerns in preparation for action at
ministerial level. I understand that Mr Mortimer is not
keen to attend the meeting, but lower-level meetings have
discussed the subject many times in the past without registering progress. The timing is not ideal from our point of view (Mr Stone is in Hong Kong), but the alternative would involve at least one more week's delay. Your letter of 15 October had proposed a meeting within two
weeks.
4. The ODA and we seem to have covered all the bases and
should be able to answer any technical questions. The Treasury will no doubt explain their point about alternative approaches to this issue - involving the transfer of assets and liabilities to HMG. We are not clear what they mean, but assume it is a reworking of the idea that Hong Kong should pay: we can explain again why this is a bankrupt
notion.
LESACA/2
محل
N J Cox
TR?
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