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Mr. Wilford
Periodic Reports from the Governor, Hong Kong
I was reminded when you raised this question at Sir L. Monson's meeting this afternoon that we received a report from the Governor last April.
in your room afterwards, but forgot. flag in the attached file.
2.
I meant to mention this
The despatch is at
As you will see, a draft reply was prepared in the
Department. I was not however satisfied that we could reply on the lines proposed having regard in particular to the fact
that there had been a change in Government here. I also had in mind the Colonial Office practice (referred to in Mr. Carter's minute to you of 3 October, 1969, at flag 'Q' in HK K 13/23, attached) to avoid issues in contention. You
will see that in paragraph 15 of his despatch of 23 April the Governor "hoped that the very considerable benefits to the United Kingdom from her control over the grant of air traffic rights in Hong Kong, which generally act to the detriment of the Colony, will be reflected in a loan or other financial assistance to help spread the incidence of the cost of this extension of the runway of Kaitak7." I therefore decided to leave a reply until after my visit to Hong Kong in September. Since then I am afraid I have had other more urgent things to deal with but I have been quite sure from the beginning that the Governor's despatch should not be printed it is very long and very dull. Moreover I do not think that a formal despatch should be sent in reply; there is in fact nothing that we could usefully say which is not already the subject of separate correspondence. I have, however, been meaning to write to Mr. Holmes to apologise for the fact that they have not had any acknowledgement of the despatch. hope to be able to do this this week.
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13.