香港 督府
CONFIDENTIAL
GOVERNMENT HOUSE HONG KONG
С
HSBC file,
HKB 102/1
VIA FAX
ра
L8 NOV 1993
29 October 1993
Dear
ear Nigil.
Mr White
us.
Meeting between the Chancellor
and Sir William Purvesi 21 October 1993
Thank you for your faxed letter of 26 October.
Sir William's comments that HSBC's relations with Peking has suffered from his membership of ExCo and from the Bank's move to London also came as a surprise to We have heard nothing in Hong Kong that HSBC's problems with China, if any, came from Sir William's membership of ExCo. On the contrary, we have heard that China gave Sir William some credit for not supporting the Governor's constitutional package.
If there is any problem at all, our understanding is that the Chinese were indeed originally concerned about Hong Kong Bank's restructuring/merger, and moving the headquarters to London. However, for various reasons they have never allowed this concern to develop to a point comparable with their concern about Jardines, There are two main reasons for this.
First,
Sir William Purves went to some trouble to forewarn the Chinese and explain to them exactly what HSBC were doing and why. Second, as I mentioned above, he made no secret of his views on the Governor's constitutional development proposals. Furthermore, we understand from a source that the Chinese Government does not think that the Hong Kong Bank has tried to diversify its business away from Hong Kong and China, despite relocating its headquarters to London,
We have also obtained some information from certain senior staff of HSBC that the Bank, and the senior staff, have excellent relations with the People's Bank of China in Peking. Sir William was never under any pressure from the CPG to distance himself from the
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constitutional package. It was rather Sir William himself who made the decision on his own initiative. With regard to the Dragon Bond issue (paragraph 5 of the notes of the meeting between the Chancellor and Sir William), the senior HSBC'¤ executives' assessment is that if Samuel Montagu had offered the most competitive terms, they would have got the business.
Finally, we have heard that HSBC have been strung along in their attempt to take back the Bank's old building in Shanghai. But this should not have arisen out of political reasons. One has to see this from the broader angle as every organisation who has a building at the Bund, and fails to get it back, has claimed that it has not been successful because of political reasons.
We therefore see very little evidence here to substantiate Sir William's allegations. However, you may wish to enquire further with Sir Robin McLaren to see whether the Embassy in Peking has picked up anything about the Bank.
Чам
You we
(Bowen Leung)
Private Secretary
Nigel Whitney Esq
Hong Kong Department
Foreign and Commonwealth office
CONFIDENTIAL
CODE
018-0077
Mr Morris, HKD
Reference......
RESTRICTED RESTRICTED
HKB 102/1
8 JCI 1993
го
CHINESE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST HKSBC
1. I have just seen a copy of PS/Mr Goodlad's minute of 26 to Mr Ricketts concerning allegations of Chinese discrimination against HKSBC made by Sir W Purves in a meeting with the Chancellor. I attach a copy of a minute of a call on Mr Goodlad by the Hon Victor Lampson of Cazenove. Paras 4 and 5 might be of interest.
Laurence Bristow-Smith
FED
WH240
270-2953
27 October 1993
Cc: Mr Tebbitt, ERD