Second, I took the opportunity of exploring with the Hong Kong Government (the Governor, Chief Secretary and Political Adviser) as well as Yao Guang, the idea of some kind of joint holding company representing the interests of the three Governments and the private sector if this would overcome what are apparently genuine Chinese con- cerns over the actual financial controls for the
airport/port development. A company structure of this kind with a modest capital base (which for practical purposes could be virtually zero) would allow the appointment of directors with responsibility for monitoring financial aspects on a regular basis. All this is in the context of what Yao Guang described as your highly success- ful visit and our own express concerns about the impasse between officials down the line. I will pursue this concept of a joint venture with Malcolm Caithness. Meanwhile, I have taken the opportunity of discussing the concept with David Young in his capacity as Chairman of Cable & Wireless.
If this proposal seems worthy of further exmina- tion, you may wish to consider involving him in the process and I know that he will be visiting Hong Kong next week.
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The IPU and the United Nations Before we arrived in Pyongyang, I was made aware of some of the reservations expressed by members of our UN Mission which, I understand, are shared by other Western officials including those from Italy, Canada, the United States, France and Germany. I believe that such reservations have failed to take into account many of the unique aspects of the IPU including the direct involvement of Ministers in its work. I shall be writing to you separately on this matter but meanwhile, as an example of the previous comment, you may be interested to hear the Polish Minister for Defence, Mr. J. Onyszkiewicz, who serves on the Executive Committee of the IPU, has formally indicated his Government's support for the proposed observer status at the General Assembly of the IPU and tells me that he is confident of obtaining similar support from Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Other discussions at the 85th IPU Conference suggest that there is likely to be strong support for this proposal from Latin American and Third World countries and, on this basis, the IPU Geneva Secretariat