TNAG-0306-FCO40-342-Equipment-for-technical-institutes-in-Hong-Kong-provision-of-1971 — Page 189

RYNEENXMR

The Rt Hon R Wood MP

Minister of Overseas Development

Eland House

EC Laird

HKD

Stag Place

London SW 1

A Royle

Thank you for your letter of 4 January about our

proposal that £400.000 should he provided from the aid

programme to pay for British equipment for four-

technical institutes in Hong Kong.

2. I am very sorry that you find great difficulties in

ou

-this proposal.

From my point of view, and for the

reasons which I shall explain, it is particularly

important that we should make this gesture new and I

should be most grateful if you could reconsider the

matter.

3. I think I should stress immediately that in telling me about the Japanese offer, . P Y Tang, the Chairman

of the Polytechnic Planning Committee, who is also

of course a Member of the Executive Council, spoke in

terms which made it clear that he was not asking us for

parallel help because of our relationship with Hong Kong

Co the per J

but telling us) in case, in our trade interests, we

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would like to do something similar. As he put it, the

Japanese offer was designed to ensure that the products

of the Feng Kong technical instutes were used to

Japanese machinery and would place orders for it in

future. He thought we might in our trade interests

like to see some of the trainees brought up with a