CONFIDENTIAL
ان منه من باب اور میں اور ان کا
10 May, 1978
ITGA
SCR 7/936/49
HKK 184/1
> > MAY 1978
10. 31
R C Samuel Esq
Far Eastern Department
F CO
SPECIAL FLIGHTS FROM CHINA
IND!
ظم
On Teen
You will already have seen from the telegram traffic that the Director of Civil Aviation approved an application from the Chinese to operate a cargo charter flight on 3 May for the carriage of breeding chickens between Hong Kong and Canton. The operation had a number of interesting facets and I would now like to fill in some of the details.
2.
The breeding chickens in question were apparently a present from some overseas Chinese in California to China. When we first heard of the flight which was to come here from Canton to pick up the chickens, it seemed a perfectly straight forward occasion. However, some interesting wrinkles developed. Two days before the flight was due I was telephoned during the evening by the NCNA to say that they were worried that the timing of the cargo flight arriving in Hong Kong from the States was such that their own aircraft might not be able to return to Canton before Kai Tak closed at midnight. With the agreement of the Civil Aviation Department, I told the Chinese that we would, if necessary, permit the aircraft to take off despite the night curfew. We did not, however, want this to become a precedent since the Trident aircraft used by the Chinese were noisy and we did not want to have complaints from people living under the flight path who would claim that we were discriminating in favour of the Chinese.
3.
The Chinese also told me, to my astonishment, that the airline bringing the chickens from the States was Flying Tiger.
This airline, founded, if I remember right, by General Chenault during the Second War, has a long history of association with the Chinese Nationalists. That seemed bad
enough. But the NCNA also told me that the flight was staging through Taipei. I thought this information must be the prelude to some protest and prepared myself to say that the Hong Kong Government had nothing to do with the chartering
1
/contd....
CONFIDENTIAL
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