TNAG-2967-FCO40-4246-Future-of-Hong-Kong-British-Consulate-General-inclusion-of--1993 — Page 14

From R.F. Cornish LVO British Senior Trade Commissioner

Peter Ricketts Esq

HKD

FCO

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Мно

RECEIVE

406/13

2.9 OCT 1993

Copied to Mo White (OED)

B4 His Barone fores of.

Mus

OFFICE

My Woodrow

Ahree

in fax

fee

British Trade Commission Hong Kong

9th Floor

Bank of America Tower 18 Harcourt Road Central Hong Kong

Tel No: 523 0176 Fax No: 845 2870

14 October 1993

Dear Peter,

22/20

BRITISH CONSULATE-GENERAL BUILDING/BRITISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

1. In the context of Michael Sze's letter to you of 7 October, you asked me on the telephone last night if we thought the Chamber was really keen to move in to the new building.

2. The Chamber's Committee has taken a formal vote on the

But it principle of co-location, and the vote was in favour. was not unanimous and, since it was taken, the political

The latest we have is Brigadier atmosphere has deteriorated. Hammberbeck's suggestion to the Department of Trade that the

Mr Needham will be commitment was less than wholly firm. seeing James Chiu (Chairman) and William Courtauld (Deputy Chairman) and Hammerbeck on 19 October and I shall try then to get a better feel for their thinking. My guess, and it is only a guess, based on some casual conversations, is that if we were to offer a rent which is significantly below commercial rents then they will want to take us up on it.

3.

If

On that, I enclose a letter to Russ Jarvis from Stephen Whittle in OED. You will see that while OED has spoken to the Chamber in terms of a licence fee which would be a long way below a commercial rent, OED's view is that a commercial rent

I disagree. We ourselves are would be "most appropriate". getting a cut-price building because we got the land free. we tried to make a profit on the deal with the Chamber, we

It seems me that the fairest should probably lose them. arrangement and probably, one which they would buy, is to offer them a formula based on their proportion of the building cost, plus their proportion of the running costs.

5.

But it would

Russ Jarvis is pursuing this direct with OED. be very helpful if you were able to get a view on where they really stand (as between Derek Savage and Whittle's letter),

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/whether we

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