(118281) Dd. 391599 1,500M 2/69 Hw.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry
No.
ECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
i
DRAFT
R
-D
To:-
BACKGROUND
Type 1 +
From
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
The Hong Kong Government has asked us for
assistance in financing a £13 million project for
developing this airport, which is second only to
Heathrow in its importance to British aviation
interests because of the value of traffic rights there.
The request is for a loan of about £6 million on
favourable terms (i.e. over 15 years at interest below
the market rate); this sum would finance the extension
of the runway so that it can take the new generation of
jumbo and supersonic aircraft. They have also asked
for a grant of about £250,000 from aid funds towards
the cost of replacing the aeronautical communications
system.
In 1959 we gave Hong Kong an interest free
Joan of £3 million to assist in building the present,
runway.
2. For two years attempts have been made without
success at official level to obtain a measure of assist-
ance. The Treasury have considered that in our present
economic circumstances Government expenditure should
not be increased for this purpose; the necessary funds
must be found from existing sources. The only
possible major source of existing funds is the Aid
Programme; the ODM do not consider Hong Kong to be
"aidworthy" and hold strongly 'to the view that Board of Trade votes for civil aviation are the appropriate
/wrce