Mr Goodfellow
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THE HONG KONG MASS TRANSIT SCHEME: MR CHAPMAN PINCHER
9 BRIEFING OF
1. As I have already told you, when Mr Royle had lunch with Mr Chapman Pincher the other day Mr Chapman Pincher showed great interest in the Hong Kong Mass Transit Scheme. He was given a rough background briefing by Mr Royle and then said that he wanted to write an article or articles on the subject and would be grateful for further briefing. Mr Royle told him that he would arrange this in due course with the Department.
Mr Chapman Pincher also promised that he would write the article at the most advantageous time from our point of view.
2. It now appears that the Hong Kong authorities will not be able to make up their minds as soon as had been expected. According to Mr Peter Walker's Private Secretary there is now some doubt as to whether the original intention to boil down the existing four consortia to two or three will be ful- filled. It may be that after they have had further talks with each consortium the Hong Kong authorities will award the contract to a single consortium, ie missing out the penultimate stage. Because of this the DTI think it would be a bad idea for Mr Chapman Pincher to write an article yet. It could stimulate the British consortium's competitors and it could embarrass the Governft. Mr Royle agrees but says that once the next stage has been reached - whether it is a decision to reduce the competitors to two or to award the contract to one - we must brief Mr Chapman Pincher at the earliest possible moment.
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