(21/9)
IN CONFIDENCE
31 July, 1970.
ale/ii
Container Berths at long
LAST
REF.
NEXT
REF.
In your Telex Ship 2 and Foreign Office telegram No. 591 of 24 July which reached us by bag, you referred to an approach which had been made to us by a Mr. Oyama to make representations to the Hong Kong Government in their favour over bids for container berths. The approach you had from OCL must have been due to the fact that I informed Rae-Smith, the Head of Butterfield and Swire, who represent OCL in Japan, of this approach. I did this because Rae-Smith is the doyen of the British shipping interests in Japan and because I have had discussions with him over the last few months on the general question of containerisation. The facts are briefly as follows.
2. The Ambassador received a letter about two weeks ago from Taizo Ishizaka, the Chairman of the Expo Association and former Head of the Federation of Japanese Economic Organisations, and the grund old man of Japanese business referring to the bid made by the
Kowloon Container Warehouse Co. Ltd." for one of the container berths in Kong Kong. This was followed up by a call on the Ambassa- dor by Haruhiko Nishi, former Ambassador in London, and Oyama, President of the Oyama Shipping Company and the organiser of the Kowloon Container Warehouse Co. Ltd. The objective of all this seems to have been to seek our support for Kowloon Container Ware- house Co. Ltd.'s bid.
3. The Ambassador listened and merely said that this was a deci- sion which the Hong Kong Government would make in the light of their own assessment of Hong Kong interests and of the suitability and terms of the various bids which were made. He did, however, under- take to pass on the views of Nishi and Oyama.
4. When Oyama called on the Ambassador, he referred to the in- creasing trade between Japan and Hong Kong and said that his com- pany operated some 33 sailings each month to Hong Kong and South East Asia. He added that the Oyama Shipping Company would shortly go over to semi-containers for some routes and would probably need pure containers on the Hong Kong-Japan run because almost all of the cargo out of Hong Kong was suitable for containers, Oyama suggested that his company was an important one in Japan's trade with South
/East
R. R. Goodison, Esq., C.B.,
Second Secretary,
Board of Trade,
1 Victoria Street, S.W. 1.
IN CONFIDENCE
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.