28-JUL-1993 17:23
BRITISH TRADE COMMISSION
FAX TRANSMISSION
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P.02
Our Reference:
28 July 1993
Malcolm Day Esq
DEP2/DTI
cc: Allan Kerfoot, Peking
John Morris, HKD, FCO
Dr Laurence Bristow-Smith, FED, FCO
Page 1 of 3
British
Trade Commission Hong Kong
9th Floor, Bank of America Tower, 12 Harcourt Road, Hong Kong
Mail Address: GPO Box No 528, Hong Kong
Telephone: 523 0176
Telex: HX 75031 (a/b 73031 UKTRA HX) Facsimile: (852) 845 2870
Cable Address: UK TRADE, Hong Kong
Дола Повести,
Sir William Stones
18
This was very
1. Thank you for your INTRA 124 of 27 July. helpful before my meeting this morning with Bill Stones.
But, for him,
He was able to
2. stones greeted me warmly. (We had probably not met since we had had a great deal to do with each other during negotiations over Daya Bay in the mid 1980's. like the Chinese, old relations carry weight). reminisce on past triumphs, knowing that I had at least been an observer off stage of many of them. I spent a bit of time buttering his ego, which always pays dividends with him, as you know. He remains immensely proud of the amount of business that his efforts have brought to the UK. I assured him that this was widely recognized and much appreciated in London.
3. He was not initially inclined to be drawn very far on whether he proposed to pursue the invitation from Mr Needham. I had to spend some time trying to squeeze a reaction out of him. (I might add that, in conversation with James Smith-Laittan very recently, Tom Gibson of Gibson Wells said that Stones had expressed concern to him that working with Mr Needham and DTI would be "too political" and that he was looking for alternative offers). Stones told me that he had four jobs which he was considering. He had not made up his mind about any of them. The front runner was probably a merchant bank. But, although the salary was extraordinarily attractive (he had forgotton how much bankers in the UK pay themselves), he was uncertain whether a merchant banker' s culture was for him - merchant bankers hawked their wares indiscriminately to Japanese, Korean, Germans, et al: he preferred to promote Britain. Similarly, he was not altogether attracted to the Scotia Power proposal since he could not see
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