TNAG-0422-FCO40-468-Construction-of-an-underground-railway-system-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 35

of sending an expert

Mr Crowson

Mr Goodfellow

اما

HONG KONG MASS TRANSIT SYSTEM

1.

I have discussed with Mr Glaves-Smith the minutes by Mr Royle, Sir Duncan Watson and Mr Wilford about the possibility of sending an "expert" to Hong Kong before the next round of talks. Mr Glaves-Smith will consider the points made in our minutes. If he wants to pursue the idea he will write to us.

2.

Sir D Watson suggests an analysis of the pros and cons of a joint consortium, either with the Japanese or with the Europeans. Since the choice of partner or partners must in the end be a commercial one (or at least must not be contrary to the commercial interests of the British consortium), and since we do not know how the rival consortia are going to emerge within the next round of talks, I think we have no choice but to wait until after the talks beginning on 19 March before attempting this analysis.

12 March 1973

DCS5

A C Stuart

Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Department

(17293) 897465 400m 1/73 G.W.B.Ltd. Gp.863

CONFIDENTIAL