TNAG-0423-FCO40-469-Construction-of-an-underground-railway-system-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 139

Mr Wilford

CONFIDENTIAL

This got lost in

the works and was

not submitted in

my absence

PS Mr Royle

NICK?

HONG KONG MASS TRANSIT SYSTEM

P/A

1. Mr Grierson is coming to see Mr Royle at 10 am on 11 May.

I understand that his purpose, in his new capacity as a member

of the European Commission, is to urge on us the desirability of

a joint European approach to the Mass Transit System.

He may

have in mind either joint financing or joint construction or

both.

CONSIDERATIONS

it.

29/5

2. To modify the UK consortium bid so drastically at this

stage would confuse the Hong Kong Government badly. If we went

for a joint European approach now this would almost inevitably

mean the German-Franco-British consortium, or some variant of

This would involve modifying our support for the British

consortium led by GEC and Costains and letting in GKN. Mr Peter

Walker has said that he is unwilling to do this at this stage.

The British consortium believe that they are still ahead of the

game and stand a good chance of being awarded the contract on

their own. If subsequently they wanted partners or help, they

would be able to get it from a position of strength.

situation, some link with European companies or even the Japanese

could well be desirable. But the time is not yet.

In this

3. These considerations have led Mr Walker to conclude that we

should continue to put our whole weight behind the British

consortium bid. But they are not arguments that we can deploy

/to

CONFIDENTIAL