TNAG-0635-FCO40-783-Supplies-of-electricity-for-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 175

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HONG KONG: GENERATING EQUIPMENT FOR THE CHINA LIGHT AND POWER CO.

1. Mr Dales in the Private Office telephoned the department on 25 March to say that Lord Rhodes had asked that the Prime Minister should see Sir Lawrence Kadoorie when he is here in view of the financial importance of the order that his company will be placing for generating equipment (Lord Rhodes has connections in Hong Kong and has written twice to Lord Goronwy-Roberts over the past year or so about the desirability of increasing British exports to Hong Kong). The department advised Mr Dales, subject to the views of the DOI, to inform Number Ten that since it had already been agreed that a DOI Minister (or Ministers) should see Sir Lawrence Kadoorie it would not be appropriate to recommend that the Prime Minister should see him (FCO telegram No 203 of 18 March to Hong Kong refers).

2. Mr Holt in Number Ten telephoned me this afternoon to say that Lord Rhodes had repeated his request that the Prime Minister should see Sir Lawrence Kadoorie since, according to Lord Rhodes, Sir Lawrence now also wished to discuss the possibility of his company's extending its operations into China. (I believe that the China Light and Power Co have in the past envisaged the possibility of their establishing an electricity generating system which would supply the Southern parts of China as well as Hong Kong but that nothing has come of this). Mr Holt said he wondered whether this additional information constituted sufficient grounds for the Prime Minister being advised to see Sir Lawrence Kadoorie. I said that I thought we should continue to be guided by Hong Kong telegram No 268 of 12 March, which made no mention of Sir Lawrence's aspirations, assuming they exist, to extend his company's operations into China but was confined to the question of purchasing equipment for the company's present Hong Kong operation alone. Given this and the fact that, as it turns out, Mr Alan Williams, the Minister of State concerned at the DOI, has undertaken to see Sir Lawrence Kadoorie, I told Mr Holt that I would be against advising, at least at this stage, that the Prime Minister should see him. Mr Holt said that this had been his own inclination and that, subject to checking with the DOI, he proposed to proceed accordingly. It may be, as I mentioned to Mr Holt, that subject to what Sir Lawrence Kadoorie actually has to say when he sees Mr Williams, there could be a case for advising that he should be seen by a more senior Minister. Though I did not say so to Mr Holt, I am inclined to think that the Secretary of State for Industry might, in those circumstances, be advised to see him.

28 March 1977

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1 APR DA

HKK 16411

cc: Mr Orr (Far Eastern Dept)

D.F. Millia Д

D F Milton

Hong Kong Department

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