:
RESTRICTED
32
PS/Mr Blaker
HKK 1846
Sir D Maitland
2313% 19. $[co Miss Brown
2 APR 1980
DIRK OFFICER
PA
* Ex
CPA AND THE HONG KONG/LONDON ROUTE
HKGD
MAED
a Mr Gardiner
30A
1. You will see from the attached letter from John Swire that he
and his brother wish to talk to the Minister of State as soon as possible about the CAA decision on the Hong Kong/London route.
2. I recommend that the Minister of State should see them this week, if this is at all possible. I suggest that you should be in direct touch with their office. HKGD will submit briefing when you
have arranged an appointment.
3.
Our concern in this office is to try to ensure that CPA get a reasonable slice of the Hong Kong/London route. However, we have
to exercise great care not to give CPA the impression that one Government Department (the FCO) will battle for them against another, since this would undoubtedly leak in Hong Kong and cause
difficulty for Mr Nott. Nevertheless, a submission is being prepared recommending that the Secretary of State should intervene with Mr Nott on the wider implications of the CAA's decision. Meanwhile, I gather that Mr Nott has accepted advice that he should not receive any direct representations from any of the parties to the appeal, outside the appeal procedure itself.
4.
This is a correct stance for the Secretary of State for Trade, but the Legal Adviser sees no constitutional problem in Mr Blaker receiving the Swire brothers. However, I have taken the precaution of warning John Swire on the telephone that, if Mr Blaker agreed to see him and his brother, the discussion might lead into matters on which Mr Blaker would have to decline to comment. In short, CPA was one of the appellants against a decision by an organ of the British Government, and both Mr Nott and Mr Blaker were members of that
Government.
31 March 1980
RESTRICTED
DF Murray