COMMERCIAL IN CONFIDENCE
Letter sent to Sir Lawrence Kadoorie via Derek March
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Dear Sir Lawrence
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You asked me to report back to you upon my visit with the Governor which
took place on my last day in Hong Kong. We had a very fruitful discussion
together for an hour and a half. The Governor had invited Mr Jeaffreson,
Mr Wilson and Derek March to be present. He had apparently not invited Mr Jones, the Environmental Secretary, to join the meeting.
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As I had mentioned to you before, and with your prior agreement,
showed the Governor my paper entitled "Key Issues", and told him about the
discussion we had had on Tuesday in Canton on that paper. Most of the time
was taken up with my explaining to the Governor what the implications of each
item were. However, several further important points came out of the
discussion and the main purpose of this letter is to tell you about those.
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The Governor strongly approves of your statement concerning safety
of reactors. He wishes to take a similar position himself and in public is
going to state that he is relying on the fact that the UKAEA are your
advisers on this matter and 'in addition he is taking the trouble to have
supplemental advice from the British Nuclear Inspector. He wishes to hold
to this very simple proposition and not develop within Hong Kong any
independent view about the safety or environmental acceptability of a
nuclear power station. He has therefore not permitted the Environmental
Secretary of Hong Kong to have anything to do with this project.
When I had previously seen the Governor he had mentioned to me that
he did not think there would be any environmental opposition to nuclear power
in Hong Kong. He now wished to correct himself by giving the opinion that he
was now confident that opposition would arise, but it would not be serious
provided both you and he took the simple line you have now both decided upon.
When I explained the importance of operations to the safety of the
reactor I said that in my opinion it was essential for CLP to have a place
at "the Board of Directors of the project". I explained the most natural
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