HKK 1846
11
(4.8A)
}
For the
jame
reasons
Mr Clift
CONFIDENTIAL
Replied Alla
Q
Hong Kong and General Department
715.4
SIR FREDDIE'S COMPLAINTS ABOUT THE HONG KONG ATLA
We spoke before Easter about Sir Freddie Laker's letter of 17 March to Mr Nott, in particular about the desirability or otherwise of passing the letter or extracts from it on to Hong Kong.
2. I discussed this again with Mr Bryant in the DOT on 3 April. He holds strongly to the view that it would be inadvisable to pass the letter on without Sir Freddie's knowledge, especially as Laker still have an outstanding application before the Hong Kong ATLA. He also considers it would be preferable to avoid involving Hong Kong more than absolutely necessary and that we should not therefore ask Sir Freddie whether he had any objection to our consulting Hong Kong; nor should we recommend a brief reply to his letter explaining that it was impossible to deal with his allegations in detail without Hong Kong's comments. Mr Bryant believed it should be possible to answer most of the points in Sir Freddie's letter on the basis of the material already available
I have therefore had a shot at a reply on this basis and would be grateful to know if you would be content with something on these lines. My draft trespasses considerably on your territory but I would of course also be glad of any more detailed comments before I attempt to clear it with the DOT. If we were to submit a reply on these lines we would still need to check that we should refer to the proposed review of air transport licensing procedures and I am therefore attaching a draft telegram to Hong Kong covering this point.
сс
Mr Gardiner
8 April 1980
Anne Stoddart
A E Stoddart
Maritime, Aviation and Environment
Department
CONFIDENTIAL