Annex A
Radio and Press Reaction : Summary
(a) Radio: "Talkabout", a daily phone-in programme in
Cantonese, devoted an entire 2 hours one day to the issue;
every single caller criticised the CAA decision.
Typical
comments included: "exploitation", "discrimination", "greed",
"second-rate citizenship", "suppression", "Britain's sell-out".
"Open Line" - a similar programme in English over the period
S
of a week broadcast over 100 calls of which 80 were anti, 8 were
pro the decision, and the rest were neutral. Both programmes
demonstrated cynical disbelief at the justification given for
the decision, ascribing it to commercial exploitation of colonial
Hong Kong by a self-interested British Government. There were
relatively few direct criticisms of BCAL as such it was the
exclusion of CPA that was the cause of the outrage, together
with distrust of the DC10 as a safe aeroplane.
(b)
G
Newspapers: Editorials in 16 Chinese and 4 English daily papers (with a combined circulation of over 1 million) universally
condemned the decision, as did other articles. These are all
attached. Typical comments were:
Kung Sheung Daily News: "In the eyes of the British people, Hong Kong is only a hen that lays golden eggs. As long as it continues to lay eggs, other matters are not important the people of Hong Kong have expressed resentment: the general feeling is that the CAA is still taking a colonial attitude towards Hong Kong and it would protect Britain's commercial
interests at the expense of Hong Kong
Obviously the
Authority has not considered the question of trade reciprocity
11
South China Morning Post: "The decision
will be widely
and rightly resented in Hong Kong ..... the decision smacks
of old-fashioned protectionism of the worst kind
London
has displayed a shameless abuse of imperial privilege by shutting out the local airline and dividing the route between
two British/.....