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JOHN SWIRE & SONS LTD
Regis House
43-46 King William Street
London EC4R 9BE
Registered Office
Registered Number 133143 ENGLAND
copy HICH 14/1py please to
Lord Bridges
Mr. Adams
Telegrams:
TEMSELOAF LONDON EC4
Telephone:
01-623 3030
Teler: 888800
Answer back:
SWIRE G
1. Tom Gray (MITED) 23rd June 1982
Alan Donald, Esq., C.M.G...
Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London, SW1A 2AH.
Dear Alan,
Mr. Willia
then to Mr. dlife (IGD)
ENTER.
dur Vossen -BU nital for $17 12/3
Astmeld
27/6
It was very good of you and Dick Clift to see John Browne and myself yesterday. For our part, we felt that our general discussion about the future of Hong Kong was most helpful.
It goes without saying that a satisfactory outcome to the 1997 problem is of enormous importance to Swires in view of our wide spread of business interests in Hong Kong. But, perhaps, in particular, we are concerned to see that the longterm future of Cathay Pacific Airways is not put at risk as the result of any agreement or understanding between H.M.G. and Peking. C.P.A. is a very considerable and growing British interest:- by the end of this year we will be operating seven 747s and nine TriStars; we will have an exclusively Rolls-Royce powered fleet, having already spent well in excess of £100 m. on R.R. engines; we expect next year to operate a new service Trans-Pacific to Vancouver; we continue to put considerable effort into developing the Hong Kong/ London v.v. route; we have also, as you know, acquired B.A.'s 747 freighter, the only such animal on the British register.
All this, with new 747s costing around US$70 million apiece, requires massive capital commitment and, particularly in the light of the present depressed state of the international aviation industry, a good deal of faith. Within Swires, we consider the commercial risks of this expansion to be acceptable, but that does mean our constantly making political judgments about the future of Hong Kong and, inter alia, the continuing control of traffic rights on the present pattern. against this background that our general talk was so useful.
It was
Many thanks.
Yours sincerely,
Adnai bune выбнё
c.c. Christopher Roberts, Esq., Department of Trade