Registry
No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret,
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
CONFIDENTIAL
DRAFT
LETTER
To:-
C W Roberts Esq Department of Trade
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence AIR SERVICES ON THE LONDON-HONG KONG ROUTE
Type 1 +
From
Mr Murray
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
DSR 11
1.
Thank you for your letter of 3 August to Hugh Cortazzi who is
now on leave about air services between Hong Kong and London.
2. In my view it would be more equitable and less likely to give rise
to misunderstandings and resentment if all the airlines concerned in this
particular application were to be treated by CAA on an equal footing.
I accept however that there are doubts about the propriety of a
direction to CAA on this point. We shall not therefore be seeking a
reversal of your Secretary of State's decision.
This
3. In these circumstances I agree that a reply should be sent to Hong
Kong's telegram No.959 on the lines proposed by your department.
will help to reassure the Hong Kong Government that the procedures will
allow proper account to be taken of their interests and that your
Minister does not rule out the possibility of varying the CAA decision,
by direction if necessary. As we have made some slight amendments to
your draft I am enclosing a copy of the text which I hope can now be
cleared quickly by our officials. We had some doubts about whether, if
an appeal were pending, it would be proper for your Secretary of State
to take into account representations other than under Regulation 16(14)
of the CAA Regulations 1972 ie where he has decided to consult a
territory (unless of course the territory is a body entitled to make
representations under Regulation 16(6)). This is however a matter of
domestic law on which no doubt legal advice will be given.
If it is up
to your Secretary of State to decide to consult Hong Kong and not the
other way round I hope we can take it that he would initiate such
consultations.
Dd 0532000 800M 5/78 HMSO Bracknell