CONFIDENTIAL
2
area to our search and rescue exercise was probably not a deliberate attempt to cause difficulties but rather the result of lack of co-ordination in Canton between the civil authorities, who had received our notification, and the military authorities who were probably organising the Chinese exercise and might have had it planned well in advance of our announcement. It remained to test this hypothesis. We decided that we should not delay a full year lest our right to hold such exercises might be lost by default. Rather, we would wait until the Chinese had finished their training flights at the end of December and then organise our own exercise to test the water.
5.
This we have now done. A small-scale search and rescue exercise was mounted in a similar area on 9 January. Because it takes time to involve participants from further away, the exercise was carried out using aircraft and ships only from Hong Kong. We issued a Notice to Airmen in the same way as before but allowing only six days warning before the exercise. to Canton on the teleprinter net.
A copy went
6.
The exercise has now been carried out successfully. There was no reaction from Canton and no attempt to organise Chinese training flights in the area. I hope this means that we were right in thinking that the Chinese did not intend to restrict our ability to carry out such exercises. However, the full proof will only come if we can successfully carry out the usual larger scale exercise in the autumn.
7.
I should perhaps mention that we also had some other difficulties with the Chinese training flights. They were taking place fairly close to Kai Tak, sometimes at a height which meant that they were in the same area as civil aircraft. We have no direct voice contact with such
aircraft. This makes things difficult for our Air Traffic Controllers. These problems are compounded by the Chinese practice of not always sticking rigidly to the routes they have announced in advance. We can check their routes by radar but have no accurate means of checking their altitude. Consequently, the controllers have to assume that the announced height may be wrong and give the Chinese aircraft a wide berth. This is difficult, particularly when there are several such aircraft operating in the busy afternoon period.
8.
I will spare you further technical details. Suffice to say that I have passed on to my contacts in the NCNA details of the difficulties as we see them. At the same time I emphasised our pleasure at the way in which the Canton aviation authorities are now passing direct to our people advance notice of most flights near Hong Kong. The NCNA promised to report. We will now have to see if the next batch of training flights behave differently.
CC
(D C wilson)
WE Quantrill Esq (HKGD FCO) PJ L Popplewell Esq (PEKING)