CONFIDENTIAL
I knew this happened with SAS / Thai Anyway?!
with KLM
but not
aw.
He is a gloomy
. لهم
Hong Kong interests. The Hong Kong Government wished to make the Colony a major centre of tourism and communications in the Far East and were being frustrated in this objective by a Government which would not even contribute to essential work at the airport (while making full and profitable use of the airport's landing rights as a bargaining counter for traffic rights for British airlines elsewhere).
7. It was in fact evident that KIM already had its foot in the door through use of its Indonesian subsidiary. Mr. Rippon did not enter into any discussion on the question of traffic rights. But he feels strongly that concessions in this respect might be helpful in assuaging Hong Kong feelings on other more important points on which Hong Kong may be the losers such as over generalized prefer- ences and our EEC candidature.
China and Japan
8. China and Japan were at the back of the minds of everyone to whom we spoke. Some people in Hong Kong thought that HMG paid too much attention to China and others that they, or rather the present Hong Kong administration, did not pay enough. No-one wanted to talk about what would happen when the lease of the New Territories ran out and clearly saw their own future within a limited time span. As for Japan, seen from Hong Kong as well as Australia and New Zealand, it was the rising power in the Far East and its industrial dynamo. For Mr. Derek Davies, the Editor of the Far East Economic Review, the only question was how soon Japan would match her economic strength with new found military power, and manufacture nuclear weapons. His judgment was that it was only a matter of time.
Conclusion.
9. Those we met in the Colony, particularly the Chinese, were impressive for their hard work, versatility and resilience. There was little self-pity. People knew that the trading pattern from which they had so greatly profited was now changing, and that they had to change with it. They wanted not so much assurances from Britain as hard information, good or bad, on which to plan their future. This future they regarded as precarious, and strictly limited in time and space. They asked that Britain should do her best for Hong Kong in all matters touching their interests, just as Hong Kong was doing her best for Britain by making an invaluable contribution to the stability of her currency.
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