EXCO MEMO NO 91/117
THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTSERRAT
Hangleory
DATE: 5 SEPTEMBER 1991
8.8.2
Executive Council Memorandum
by
His Excellency the Governor
VISIT OF MR WALTER ENGLISH
1.
As Council are aware, a Mr Walter English visited Montsrrat on 12 August claiming to be an agent for a number of Hong Kong businesses and indicating that he would be able to arrange for some US$ 10 million to be invested here.
A programme was arranged during which Mr English saw a number of officials, in particular the Acting Governor, the Acting Financial Secretary, the Acting Director of Development, the Financial Adviser and the Budget Director. I do not think. that in the end he saw any Ministers, although it had been planned for him to see the Chief Minister.
3. All the officials who saw him were of the view that he had not done his home work, had not thought through the implications of what he was proposing and was generally unrealistic in his thinking and expectations. A Texan and dressed as one, he seemed to be an unlikely representative of Hong Kong Chinese. He had some form of Hong Kong connection for business reasons but is actually based mainly in the States.
4.
He talked about his resettling 2,000 citizens in Montserrat and said that he had selected Montserrat because the climate and terrain were so similar to Hong Kong. He seemed to think that Chinese based in Montserrat would be able to conduct import/export operations from traditional suppliers in mainland China to traditional markets in Europe.
5.
Quite apart from the personality of Mr English, it seems to be quite unrealistic to expect Montserrat to absorb a number of Hong Kong Chinese immigrants. Even a lesser number would be difficult to absorb into the community, both socially and in