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Kingdom and to any flight beginning or ending in the United Kingdom by an aircraft registered in a relevant overseas territory or an associated state " (Section 21(2)). The Hong Kong Air Transport (Licensing of Air Services) Regulations require, in Regulation 3, a licence for any person to use an aircraft for carriage in the Colony or between the Colony and another place in the case of aircraft registered in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and the Colonies. The only bias in the Hong Kong Regulations is in favour of British Airways, which is exempted from the licensing requirement in the case of journeys covered by an Air Services Agreement (by the effect of Regulation 32 and the Governor's written specification of 31 July 1964 under that Regulation).
(The Hong Kong Regulations thus also in effect discriminate, but in favour of a United Kingdom base carrier rather than CPA!).
6. I therefore think that it is confusing to speak of bringing Hong Kong based airlines within the Act's general scope. Under Section 21(2) such airlines are wholly subject to the CAA's jurisdiction where flights involving the United Kingdom are concerned. As I understand the argument in the last two sentences of paragraph 4 of the draft, it is that "Unless the Act were extended to give the CAA jurisdiction over all aviation licensing in Hong Kong in the place of the Air Transport Licensing Authority there, it would be difficult to justify a statutory requirement that the CAA give Hong Kong based airlines exactly the same consideration as British Airlines (as at present defined). For that would be to put CPA, for example, in the same position as a United Kingdom based airline on any routes for which the CAA grants licences, even though the CAA does not control licensing of flights to or through Hong Kong from points outside the United Kingdom.'
11
6. It is conceivable that the present Government's policy would be closer to that in Hong Kong Regulation 11 which requires the
does not differentiate it Authority to concentrate primarily on matters which ensure the most effective service to the public (subject of course to the ca
exhep Hong Kong established for British Airways in the case of international services] However, irrespective of that, you may wish to consider whether the argument in paragraph 4 of the draft applies equally in cases where the route in question includes Hong Kong, particularly in the light of the point made in paragraph 4 of my Minute to you of 10 August, that the United Kingdom in negotiating Air Services Agreements stresses that Hong Kong is just as much a United Kingdom point as Manchester, for example, and a Hong Kong based airline is, for international purposes at any rate, as much a British airline as BCAL. Further, the FCO may wish to argue in relation to the Bill that some better mechanism be devised for resolving potential conflicts between decisions of the CAA and those of the Air Transport Licensing Authority in Hong Kong.
7. In relation to the third sentence of paragraph 5 of the draft Submission it should perhaps be made clear that if the Secretary of State for Trade is deciding an appeal, since that is a quasi- judicial function, our Secretary of State could not properly influence the outcome of that appeal. Thus, it would probably mean that any change of course as a result of any FCO pressure would have to be by the Secretary of State for Trade giving a direction to the CAA
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