TNAG-0854-FCO40-1064-The-Kowloon-Canton-Railway-1979 — Page 64

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CR 14/2321/50

CONFIDENTIAL

HKK 143/1

* NO. ST

Record of a conversation between the Political Adviser and Mr Li Chu-sheng, Second Director

of NCNA, in PA's office on 5 January 1979

LN.

Through Train Service

Mr Li said that he wished to talk about the through train service. The need for such a service was now urgent, particularly with large numbers of people travelling to China over the holiday period. He had a series of propositions to make as follows:

2.

(i)

(ii)

(iii)

(iv)

(v)

that a through train service 'should be established on an experimental basis before Lunar New Year;

that the service should be limited to certain categories of passengers consisting of foreigners, those visiting trade fairs, and organised groups of Hong Kong residents. (He later added a sub- group of" people like myself", i.e. officials);

that to start with, all examination of baggage should be carried out by the respective sides in either Canton or Kowloon. He added the "thought" (she- xiang) (distinguished carefully from his

proposals") that later on different methods might be established, including the positioning of Chinese officials in Kowloon;

that there should be joint discussions on electrification and double tracking so that the two systems could be dovetailed;

that Mr Howes should carry out discussions on the technical details in Canton (on sharing income the Chinese would propose a division based on the relative lengths of track managed by each side).

The Political Adviser said that in principle we welcomed the idea of a through train service.

The

categories of those using it suggested by Mr Li would be acceptable to us. Indeed he would be prepared to use a broader categorisation as follows:

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R

on Tuten:

/contd.

CONFIDENTIAL