Minutes
suggested that they were now trying to put some body in to it. Mr Mason again stressed the point that G K N have not, so far, had any discussions about
possible cover with E C G D and it should not, therefore, be assumed that this was yet in any substantive sense an Anglo Franco-German Consortium.
7.
The time-table is slipping and in Mr Jones' view it is difficult to see how it can be possible to have completed everything ready to start by 1 January. Indeed it might take up until then to produce enough details to enable the consortia to make a realistic bid.
But
8. He still had misgivings about how it would be possible to choose between the consortia if it was decided to go for a consortium approach. He did not think that Exco would challenge a recommendation from the Steering Grouỷ on the method of approach i e they would accept a proposal either for a package approach or for a multi-contract approach without too much øross examination. he thought that they would watch very suspiciously for any signs of favouritism" towards Britain if a consortium approach was decided on. From this point of view, therefore, it would be easier if two or three of the consortia had in some way fued together. But the drawback to this was that they might then "gang-up" against Hong Kong in fixing the price. There really were some very difficult decisions ahead and he was somewhat despondent about how they would be overcome.
9. In reply to a question from Mr Mason whether perhaps there were some people now who were wishing that the whole idea could be dropped (or simply evaporate), he said that he thought perhaps there were but the plain fact was that while this might solve the problem of deciding how to go ahead with this highly complicated scheme it would merely leave behind a whole lot of other problems of how to deal with the tremendous transport snarl up which the Mass Transit was designed to
cure.
10. He repeated what he had told me some time ego about the "spectrum of choice" as between a single consortium up to 60 different contracts and his belief that perhaps the real alternative to a single consortiùm might be some sort of share out between 4 or 5 major groups.
/another possibility
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