TNAG-0275-FCO40-311-Development-of-Kai-Tak-airport-at-Hong-Kong-1970 — Page 85

(iii) Loan on the London market

(iv) Loan from the Commonwealth Development Corporation.

17. There is no possibility of being able to find savings of overseas expenditure of more than a minimal amount on the Board of Trade Vote;

or for that matter from the Foreign and Commonwealth Services Vote

if political grounds are held to justify a contribution. The

Treasury cannot agree to any increase in the overall Votes of

Departments for this purpose. Any contribution would therefore have to come out of funds already provided through the postponement or cancellation of other projects.

18.

The £205 million aid programme alone appears to offer the

necessary flexibility. The Ministry of Overseas Development are not,

however, prepared to provide capital aid to Hong Kong in their present

economic circumstances. They can see no justification for doing so

at the expense of other more needy countries in view of the buoyant state of the Colony's economy. To a Treasury suggestion that they

might be prepared to provide assistance if not to the development of the airport then at least for some of the Colony's pressing social needs if these would suffer as a result of Hong Kong financing the

airport project, they have replied that Hong Kong does not seem

disposed to allow social needs to suffer and, rather than see this

happen, would seem prepared to settle for no extension of the airport

or a smaller extension adequate for their needs. In their view, any

expenditure for the benefit of British civil aviation should be met

from the appropriate spending head (i.e. the Board of Trade Vote)

which is not the aid programme. Historically the ODM's view of Hong Kong's eligibility for assistance from the aid programme has its

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