CONFIDENTIAL
10
Brief No.
VISIT OF SECRETARY OF STATE TO HONG KONG
APRIL 1970
UK/USSR AIR SERVICES AGREEMENT
SPEAKING NOTES
(for use with Governor/Officials)
We have never had any intention of allowing the Russians to
use this agreement for the purpose of establishing a presence in
Hong Kong.
The Russians recently sent us the Soviet text of the
Supplementary Agreement and related documents. The Russians
included in these documents two paragraphs in particular which
might be interpreted as giving them the right to a presence in
Hong Kong in one form or another, It was possible that some
misunderstanding had arisen through problems of translation but to
make quite certain that there could be no misunderstanding over
the interpretation of the agreement H.M. Ambassador in Moscow was
instructed to seek alterations in the Soviet text which in effect
would bring the terms of the documents back to the terms originally
proposed by us.
The Russians accepted all our revised texts without exception.
CONFIDENTIAL