TNAG-0098-FCO40-134-Construction-of-a-Cross-Harbour-Tunnel-1968 — Page 67

W(B)L 51-7433

NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN

Registry No.

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION

XTON Serret.

DRAFT

To:-

xfecretXX

Confidential. XRestricted XX akinglassified. X

PRIVACY MARKING

The Lord Brown, MBE.,

Board of Trade

..In Confidence

Type 1 +

From

Telephone No. & Ext.

Department

I am writing further to my letter of

31 July about the Hong Kong Tunnel. I have

now seen a letter of the same date from

Cotterill (of ECGD) on the question of access

to Hong Kong assets in the event of a Chinese

take-over.

Legal powers exist to freeze sterling

assets in the hands both of the Hong Kong

Government and a private residents of the

Colony. We would thereafter be in a position

to control the release of these blocked assets.

We are looking into the precise legal position

regarding their disposal, but I feel bound to

point out that in our preliminary view :-

(a) An unfettered discretion on the part

(b)

of H.M.G. to direct their disposal is

likely to be largely confined to the

official assets of the Hong Kong

Government; private assets would be

in quite a different category.

There would be a variety of claims

on the official assets for which

H.M.G. might have to assume

responsibility if the Hong Kong

Government ceased to exist

including

for example, the claims of pensioners

and serving officers of the Colony's

Public Service, which must have a high

priority, and (possibly) claims of other Departments of H.M.G., such as the Defence Department.

/H.M.G.

...