TNAG-0207-FCO40-243-Construction-of-a-cross-harbour-tunnel--under-Hong-Kong-harb-1969 — Page 105

CONFIDENTIAL

3.

opposition, but knowing what we do

of Hong

Kong's philosophy in such matters, I think

we can also be sure of the lines which his

argument will follow. Would he not say

that in the conditions of Hong Kong it was

not correct to infer that because the

Government did not finance the tunnel scheme

itself it did not think that it was essential.

In Hong Kong public transport which is

certainly essential is in private hands. IF

finance were found from commercial sources

for the tunnel, Hong Kong could easily turn

the argument upside down against us and say

that the correctness of her decision against

Government finande for the tunnel had been

established by the eventual prone availability

of private finance

4.

ver

Leaving this argument aside, I am uneasy

at an attempt to prove that we were not

influenced by political factors in a sequence

of events where such a claim is so uncon-

Surely we would all have to admit

vincing.

that political considerations had at more

than one stage played a part and indeed were

doing so still. Even if we convinced our

audience in the U.K that we had judged the

matter solely on commercial grounds, I

cannot believe that we should convince the

Hong Kong community. We should convince

them only that in spite of the political

importance we attached to overcoming French

competition we had failed because our faith

in Hong Kong was not such as to allow us to

offer as attractive terms as the French were

able to offer.

Everyone would know that

with

NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN

CONFIDENTIAL

Page 105Page 106