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SECRET & PERSONAL
it had become an irritant and impediment to the
settlement of the larger issues.
However, since
no such settlement has yet been reached they
have revived the claim.
9. If Hong Kong were prepared to accept
liability for the border fence we might be able to
persuade the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury
to forego claims for the other two items.
hone
However,
if you maintain that as of the items in question
(or any part of them) is a legitimate charge to
the Hong Kong Government, then we shall, I fear,
need very much stronger arguments from you than we
at present possess, particularly in respect of the
border fence, if we are to stand any hope whatever
sa art ansi of justifying an approach to the Treasury Ló
10.
Probitty
are api Regardless of the merits of the matter we
could, of course, make the point (if you confirm
its validity) that the possibility of persuading
your Finance Committee to vote the funds required
to meet any part of these outstanding charges is
negligible, (for the reason given in paragraph 6
above); and that it would probably be necessary
to use the reserve powers in order to get the money
from Hong Kong. But I fear that this argument will
have lost some credence with the Treasury since we
made great play with it during the defence
contribution negotiations and were proved to be old me some thin ago that the heann
why the wrong in the end. You did explain the reason for Un Micial Member agreed in the actie a defence
this when we last met and we would propose to pass 78 willin was because they did un on four explanation to the Treasury, although with
barance für David Trench
on the eve
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what likely effect I cannot say.
I his retirement. It 2
If we fail to reach agreement at the official
5.
SECRET & PERSONAL
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