Given the indisputable facts of Hong Kong's bes not itself function internationally, situation, any movement towards independent nationhood has never been contemplutod and presumably the Hong Kong paper is not advocating any constitutional changes. For Hong Kong to talk of CPA as a "national" airline supported by the Hon, Hong Govement in the manner of other Governments (Paras.3 and 4) is to talk in terms of an independent national Hong Kong State, and in that respect is not in ancordance with the facts. (Even if these facts were different, thepaper goes out of its way. to present CPA as significantly a UK-owned rather than purely a Hong Kong company.)
in the interesta c2D 7. If it is to hogotiate and conduct relations, effectivoly Hong Kong itself, as well as for other purposes, FIG cannot allow its hands to be tied in negotiations by restrictive commitments to some of the inflexible rules put Those may be designed to secure a Holy Kong forward in Section E of the paper. mastery of the conduct of negotiations but some of tho would also be a specific
These proposals are apparently put forward hamstrung and ineffectual negotiation. as though the Hong Kong Government is responsible for the decisions involved and takes While recognising that the fullest
the part in negotiations as a third independant power. consultation with the Hong Kong Government should be maintained and perfected final decisions must be for HMG to make in the exercise of its rights and responsibili- ties and on its own overall estimate of the particular situation concerned.
C.P.A.
G
- can be expected to regard CPA as 8.
While neither the UK - nor other countries
airline, HMG do give the most careful being a non-UK a separate national Hong Kong attention to CPA's interests, not only because it is a British airline, but also because of the UK's wider responsibilities for Hong Kong, where the airline is based.
as Para. 3 of CPA has not, howaver, been "designated" in any general sense by HMG the Hong Kong paper might be taken to suggest. Designation is a process carried out
CPA is designated in accordance with individual bilateral air services agreements. for those routes for which it is currently designated under hilaterals, and it would'
That is not be correct to regard particular British airlines as having, necessarily and for all time, sono pre-emptive claim to exclusive designation on these routes. true of the position of British airlines generally in relation to routes all over the (Paras.3,11, world. For has HMG ever defined a geographical area for CPA's network. 12 and 14). To do so would be likely, given the facts of airline business and the shifting international situation, to be a meaningless exercise, and, indeed, potentially embarrassing to CPA and Hong Kong. The view of the area in which it wants to develop, or to be guarded against competition, is a commercial one of the airlinek,
The proposal for "all possible. which can hardly, ipso facto, bind the Government.
support" well illustrates one aspect of the necessity for HMG to retain control of the decisions for which it is responsible. The degree of expense and sacrifice of other objectives or political difficulty which should be accepted in providing "all possible" support for CPA is not defined in the Hong Kong paper, for obviously any such balancing cannot be done by the colonial Government, but only by Hd Government as negotiations proceed, and with its ability to negotiate freely on all aspects according to circumstances.
9. Para.11 of the Hong Kon paper describes CPA's policy as being to develop regionally
Ih passing, the statement in the peper that CPA has no within the area described. aspiration to develop outside this area is already contradicted if CPA persist in
It is also very much open to question contemplating a trunk route across the Pacific. whether an intercontinental trunk route down to Australia can be described by any stretok of imagination or diotion as a regional activity. Hong Kong/Sydney is a
But CPA has run over that route and itø greater distance than London/New York.
ability to return to it was safeguarded in the UK understanding with the Australian authorities regarding its withdrawal,
10. Without in any way belittling HMG's very real interest in supporting CPA, it is as wall to have the facts stright in relation to Para.ll of the paper when it refers to CPA as the "trongest regional carrier". This hardly seems a meaningful or
Other stronger carriers serve the area, and the fact that they measurable concept.
CPA has never served New Zealand are also trunk carriers does not invalidate this. and in past years has comercially and operationally been squeozed out of the
Of the countries named as in CPA's "ares", Australian trade by Qantas competition.
BPA is a trifling carrier to and from India, is outcarried by JAL in the regional
2.