TNAG-0425-FCO40-471-Construction-of-an-underground-railway-system-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 90

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Mr Youdé

CONFIDENTIAL

covering SECRET

302

PLA

4KK 2.4

A

HONG KONG MASS TRANSIT SYSTEM

1.

The Anglo-Italian consortium have agreed to try to improve

their bid to meet Hong Kong's requirements before the deadline.

The Governor has apparently made it known to them that, provided

there is a fixed price in the offer, it does not necessarily

have to be within the 5,000 million dollar limit and could at

this stage include an escalation clause of some kind. He is

therefore doing what he can to help them get a valid bid on the

table.

2.

I attach a letter which I have received from Mr Royce

in the DTI covering a draft message to the Governor which he has

submitted to his Secretary of State. I have commented to Mr Royce

that the Governor will not like the reference to a visit "towards

the end of (next) week". The deadline is Sunday 2 December and a

visit beginning on the Friday would almost certainly be too late.

Mr Royce said that the consortium hoped in fact to go on Wednesday

but were unwilling to commit themselves. This seems an unnecessary

and possibly dangerous hesitation. But if the Governor does not

like the way the message is phrased, he will presumably say so. Subsequently the message has been amended to read "next wednesday"

Dese

A C Stuart

Hong Kong & Indian Ocean

Dept.

23 November 1973

Sir D Watson

PS to Mr Royle

CONFIDENTIAL

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