A E Donald Esq CMG
Foreign and Commonwealth Office Downing Street West
London SW1
Dear filan,
DEPARTMENT OF TRADE
1 VICTORIA STREET
LONDON SWIH OET
3229
TELEPHONE DIRECT LINE 01 215
SWITCHBOARD 01 215 7877
HITIZ
1udruary 1982
412
*C.
Pasota!
©
In the light of our telephone conversation of a fortnight ago, you may be interested to know that when I was in Hong Kong on 20 and 21 January I had to engage in a series of vigorous arguments with a number of people from the Governor downwards about our unwillingness to take a tough line with the Malaysians to reduce Cathay Pacific losses on the regional route between Malaysia and Hong Kong. While on purely civil aviation grounds I have a good deal of sympathy for the Hong Kong position, I defended the line we had agreed together, that we should stick by the provisions of the 1979 Memorandum of Understanding on air services between the United Kingdom and Malaysia, interpreting it in a reasonable but firm way. I think that in the end this line was accepted, certainly by the Governor. I think there- fore that you need be in no hurry to settle the enclosed bill, with which CPA presented me at the beginning of this discussion.
Nevertheless, Hong Kong would feel that their interests had been unreasonably neglected if HMG were to move further in the Malaysian direction at Hong Kong expense than we had envisaged.
2
3
I am sending a copy of this letter and of the enclosure to Roy Reeve in MAED and to Dick Clift in HKD.
Yours Since
C W ROBERTS
enc
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