CONFIDENTIAL
BRITISH CONSULATE-GENERAL FOR MACAO
9th Floor Bank of America Tower 12 Harcourt Road Hong Kong Mail Address GPO Box No 528 Hong Kong
7 copies to
Telex HX 73031 Cable Address Uktrade Hong Kong Telephone 5-230176 Fax 5-8452870
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HKD, FCO FED, FCO Peking Lisbon
Political Adviser
Your reference
HONG KONG GOVERNMENT
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0 6 FEB 1991
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STANLEY HO ON MACAU AND HONG KONG
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Our reference
Date
25 January 1991
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Good shuff!
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1. I travelled back from Macau on 18 January on the same jetfoil as Stanley Ho; he invited me into the little confession box that he uses for the journey. He talked almost non stop about the Jockey Club, the Stock Exchange, the airports, and the Macau Governor.
2. Jockey Club
Dr Ho was returning from a long meeting with Acting Governor Nabo and other shareholders of the Jockey Club: The Taiwanese, although he had always described them to the Macau Government as a bundle of underground rascals, were behaving. Engineer Ng Fuk was not. Worse, much worse, though was MacWhinney of the Jockey Club. Dr Ho under- stood perfectly the gentlemen's agreement between the 2 Governors - horses for Hong Kong, other gambling for Macau. Monjardino (formerly Under Secretary for Economic Affairs) believed he could become Governor if he introduced horses to Macau, and he (Dr Ho) blamed Jack So for giving him the OK while Peter Tsao was on leave, not knowing of the agreement. That brought trotting, and now we had galloping. He had been asked by Nabo and the NCNA (an unusual coincidence of views) to save the Jockey Club. He had put a proposal to people in Hong Kong they could sell Mark 6 in Macau if there could be cross betting from Macau to Hong Kong. Everyone (including, he said, the Chief Secretary and Financial Secretary) accepted this but MacWhinney. Dr Ho was unamused.
3. Stock Exchange
Dr Ho said Nabo agreed to scrap this on the basis that Hong Kong would co-operate on the horse issue. Now Dr Ho believed Nabo would resurrect
But he agreed that it would not be a clever move.
it.
14.
CONFIDENTIAL
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