香港 總督府
CONFIDENTIAL
HKC 182 1/3
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
HONG KONG
(132)
11 November 1991
M. Thickets: HND
RAZ
$514/u Vee Ho Bayni
На
M. Mik
паз
14
の
UK Business Opportunities:
Airport etc
Thank you for responding to my letter about Mr Gummer's visit and the misinformation which was fed to him about the Hong Kong Government deliberately introducing a bias in favour of US firms where the airport contracts were concerned. I think he went away
I was
with his mind clearer about the real situation as a result of the facts I was able to give to him. glad to see that there was no hint of any misunderstanding about this point in the letter he sent to the Foreign Secretary about his visit.
There are a couple of points in your letter which require a response. The first is what you say about Ministers feeling they need to be seen to be batting for Britain when Giscard and Shultz are "lining up for competitors". Coincidentally, the faxed copy of your letter reached me on 31 October, just after I had seen Nicholas Bayne and Simon Broadbent. They raised precisely the same point, so presumably it is part of the standard briefing.
When Nicholas Bayne mentioned the point about keeping up with the Giscards and Shultzs, I expressed surprise saying that, although I had entertained Giscard to lunch in February 1989, he had never tried to lobby me on anything. Nor, since ceasing to be Secretary of State had Shultz, although he is a Director of Bechtel which has the initial overall management consultancy contract for the airport project.
On receiving your letter, with its repetition of the same point, I thought I had better check whether I was being isolated from some wider lobbying effort. So I asked the Chief Secretary, the Financial Secretary (both past and present) and the Secretary for Economic Services, ie the key senior players so far as the airport is concerned. The response was that none of
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