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over 150 years.
Jardine Matheson's links with Hong Kong go back
It is to-day the biggest private sector employer in Hong Kong employing 46,000 people. It has 25,000 shareholders, many of whom are Hong Kong
residents. It should surely not be discriminated against as not being predominantly Hong Kong owned.
There is something supremely ironic in a British-owned merchant bank having to appeal to a British Prime Minister for help in obtaining a licence in a British Colony; especially since only recently the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank had itself to appeal for help to the same Prime Minister to obtain a seat on the Tokyo stock exchange for its subsidiary James Capel - a request for assistance which you most effectively concluded with the Japanese Authorities.
I enclose the background correspondence with the Governor of Hong Kong for your officials to study. If this study shows that our case has any merit, we would be most grateful for any assistance you can give us as we feel it is in both Britain's and Hong Kong's interests that British Financial Institutions should be fully integrated into Hong Kong both before and after 1997.
If we have to negotiate for a further eight years the opportunity may have passed.
Many thanks for any help that you can give us.
Yours sincerely Jenny kese
HENRY KESWICK
The Rt. Hon. Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, P.C.,M.P.,
Prime Minister,
10 Downing Street,
LONDON, S.W.1.
UNQUOTE
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