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the Ambassador in Tokyo could contact MITI and the MFA to convey HMG's disappointment at the lack of progress on the Japanese side, stressing that HMG set great store on achieving Anglo-Japanese cooperation on this project, in which the Prime Minister had taken a personal interest. Mr Adams explained that Sir J Whitehead had recommended that we should address ourselves in the first instance to Mitsui
rather than to the MFA or MITI, who would be reluctant to get involved on our behalf. Sir G Manzie and Mr Fletcher stressed that there was no point in asking the Ambassador simply to speak to Mitsui. Mitsui were not the problem. Indeed they were extremely keen to sign up. The problem was how to get the other Japanese companies on board.
Mr Heap suggested that Sir J Whitehead's discussions with Kumagai, the President Designate of Mitsui, might be the prelude to talking to MITI and the MFA. The Ambassador could point out that it was reasonable to expect that in a British dependent territory there should be some British involvement in a
project of this scale that we already had a very strong British contender and that linkage with major Japanese interests would make it even stronger and, in our view,
virtually unbeatable. Mr Adams said that the DTI would draft a telegram of instructions to the Embassy in Tokyo. Mr McLaren pointed out that Sir J Whitehead would be going on leave very soon but that action could be taken by Mr Field, the Minister.
Financial Arrangements
7.
Mr Adams asked whether there was any way in which the financial arrangements could be improved on the UK side. Mr Fletcher said that there was no question of Mitsui being asked to put up the lion's share of the finance. On the contrary, the draft agreement with Mitsui provided
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