SECRET
布政司署 BY BAG
香港下亞畢道
6
C.S. 41A
本署檔號 OUR REF.: SCR 13/4841/59 V
* YOur Ref.:
HKK 182/412/1
Eule
HKK 182/41288
RECERGOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT
REY →
11 MAR 1977
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
March 1977
Лиї
iu. Dound
смеланий
IN REGY
D F MILTON ESQ
H K Dept
F CO
Sen Yes.
Аси
MACAU AIRPORT
To consider ui emaltation with MeRDIDOT, SED and FED
please.
Minute 14/3.
оти
|||3.
I
Thank you for your letter of 6 January. have tried to follow your instructions to festina lente, but you will have seen the information provided in our telegram No. 57 of 18 January about the second airport and may now have received the summary of the consultancy study's requested in your telegram No. 49 of 21 January. Meanwhile, I enclose for your private information a copy of a memo from our Director of Civil Aviation, which puts the opposite side of the coin to the material from the Department of Trade, which you incorporated in para 2 of your letter under reference.
2.
As you can see, Leandro's proposal puts us in something of a quandary, but it may be helpful to set out the factors, which I think we will have to take into account in handling this issue :
(a)
(b)
anything that happens in Macau must ultimately depend on Chinese wishes, but overt Chinese policy may differ from their covert objectives: in other words, if they do not want an airport in Macau, they may prefer to manoeuvre us into blocking it rather than appear to do so them- selves;
we, on the contrary, do not want to be blamed for preventing the establishment of an airport at Macau, and in particular we want to avoid appearing to thwart Leandro, who is all too prone to blame the Hong Kong Government for his difficulties. However, given Leandro's character, any reply to the Portuguese which is seen by him and does not amount to an explicit discouragement is likely to be taken as an encouragement;
SECRET
-/contd.