CONFIDENTIAL
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
HONG KONG
31st October 1969
56
My dear hilford
During his visit to Hong Kong Leslie Monson
was of course lobbied by many interests on United Kingdom participation in the extension of the Kai Tak runway. He discussed the matter at our round-up meeting, and also with me personally on the last night of his visit. He told me that he had been much impressed by the political con- siderations involved, and said that I might quote him as believing that the matter should now be put forward to Ministers. However I think my own advice would be, on reconsideration after Sir Leslie left, to review the matter in further discussion between the Governor and himself.
It might assist you if I rehearsed once again the points I put in discussion. There are basically three reasons why I think that Her Majesty's Government should be seen to be playing its part in the extension.
First, the Hong Kong Government has extremely heavy capital commitments over the next 5 or 6 years. Apart from the ordinary but onerous programme of resettlement and other housing needs and the bread and butter construction of Government installations, there is the need for a further massive expansion of the water supply, a determined effort to catch up on the road programme, providing for containerisation, providing terminal facilities, both passenger and freight, for the larger aircraft in the 1970s, with looming behind all this the shadow of a mass transit scheme. There is therefore a need to spread some of this expenditure over a longer period than bare construction time, and the comparatively small project of the extension of the runway is one of those which we should wish to spread. Having regard to the time it takes to recover airport ex-
K.M. Wilford Esq., CMG,
Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London, S.W.1.
CONFIDENTIAL
7
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