Mr Clift
CONFIDENTIAL
20
HK K 184
1846
RECEPTOR
26 MAR 3000
INDEX
PA
cc PS/Mr Blaker
Miss Brown
Mr Burton, MAED
Mr Gardiner, Legal Advisers
LONDON/HONG KONG AIR SERVICES
1.
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(19)
Miss Brown and I discussed Mr Burton's minute of 24 March, with which we generally agree. In particular we think it would be counter-productive all round to advise the Secretary of State to intervene in any way before the appeals procedure had got under way.
We both thought it essential that CPA should actually have made its appeal before we considered next steps.
2. What neither of us could establish from Mr Burton's minute was whether the Secretary of State for Trade was precluded legally from giving a Direction under Section 4 of the Civil Aviation Act by any appeals procedure which might be in process at the time. Mr Burton will be asked to pursue this. The reason is that we might come to the conclusion that it would be wise to let the appeals hearings take
place and then put the suggestion that, given all the political circumstances, Mr Nott might issue a Section 4 Direction rather than a judgement on the appeal hearing. But this is only one of the possible scenarios.
3. I pointed out to Miss Brown my concern that we might be put in a poorer civil aviation bargaining position over-all, in regard to regional routes, if CPA were not licensed for the UK. I thought that the Asian countries would draw the conclusion from our refusal to let CPA participate in the trunk route to the parent country, that we were totally indifferent to CPA's future, and therefore we would find the Asian Governments driving increasingly hard bargains on the regional routes which CPA already enjoy on the assumption that we would not support them.
25 March 1980
Mr. Moine
22573 Mr. William & 253
J 1225/3
ра
CONFIDENTIAL
DF Murray