G F Kinnear Esq
IN CONFIDENCE
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION Eland House Stag Place London SW1
Telephone 01-834 2377 ext
LAST
19
Your reference
d413
HKK 9/2
Our reference AMP 77/328/02
Hong Kong Department
FCO
London SW1
REF.
NEXT
REF.
Date
3.
March
M 1971
42
Dear Kinnear,
Thank you for your letter to Miss Ware (HKK 9/2) of 12 February on the subject of the Hong Kong Poland its library requirements. Following the recent decision of the Secretary of State to authorise the provision, exceptionally and on grounds which in this instance are being allowed to supersede normal developmental criteria, of up to £400,000 for the proposed Hong Kong technical colleges, it may prevent future confusion if I restate our aid posture vis-a-vis Hong Kong. There are many claimants for aid and we have to work on recognisable criteria, of which income per head, rate of growth, and foreign exchange data are the main components. On this criteria Hong Kong has not qualified for aid for a number of years and has continued to move further away from the line which separates those who need aid from those who do not.
The proposal contained in your letter of 12 February has been brought to the attention of our Universities and Technical Education Department. They have commented that "because of the healthy state of the economy in that territory it (would be) inappropriate for aid funds to be used for the provision of books for Hong Kong." I regret, therefore, that I cannot advise you to offer any encouragement to the Director of Education in Hong Kong in respect of this or any similar request.
K O'Sullivan
Sin curly
Yrs. Si
Lakk 9/2
IN CONFIDENCE
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