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4. Mr Haddon Cave then said that they had every reason to believe that the Japanese too would accept the Hong Kong Government's "conditions", but they would couple their offer with firm figures (which by implication the "Germans" had not yet given) and a pre-emptive bid that the Hong Kong Government must accept their offer by 1 October 1973 (or possibly some slightly later date) or they could not carry their consortium members together into what would appear to the Hong Kong Government to be an exceptionally favourable offer. This,
Mr Haddon Cave said, would place the Hong Kong Government in an exceptionally awkward position.
5. I said that I had listened to what Mr Haddon Cave had said with interest, but was there not at least a chance that the Hong Kong Government was being taken for a ride by people who once they had landed the contract would then "up" the price in a way which the Hong Kong Government could only meet? The British consortium were experienced businessmen and combined a formidable array of talent. Mr Haddon Cave admitted that this was a possibility, but he thought them over-cautious (he mentioned again the civil engineers in particular) and lacking in leadership. Moreover under cross examination he said that the cohesiveness of the consortium team had dis- integrated whereas that of the "Germans" had noticeably improved.
6. Mr Haddon Cave ended his account of the talks by saying that they had had a very useful lunch given by GKN and would meet the "Germans" again on Wednesday (5 September) to question them on their presentation.
3 September 1973
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M
K M Wilford
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