Mr Innes
MAED (WH 297)
SECRET
-HICK 040/1 Reference
REGISTRY
LL 1983
File
(7190).
FUTURE OF HONG KONG: CIVIL AVIATION
Mr Chase represented your Department at a meeting held by Mr Donald on 15 November to consider civil aviation in
1
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Hong Kong after 1997. The Department of Transport agreed, in the light of discussion at the meeting, to draft a working paper which might be submitted to the Chinese side in the current negotiations on the future of Hong Kong.
2.
I now attach Mr Hunt's letter to me of 21 December enclosing this draft. You will wish to consider it and perhaps discuss it with your Legal Advisers (Mr Darwin took part in the earlier meeting). It is planned that the paper might be discussed at a meeting with Department of Transport representatives in the week beginning 2 January.
3.
I spoke to Mr Stevens this afternoon to make sure that we were clear about the relationship between the current question of BA's exemption from licensing requirements of the Hong Kong ATLA and the longer term issue. We agreed that the immediate problem would need to be considered in the light of our plans for the more distant future. This would be done at the meeting now arranged for 30 December. But Mr Stevens felt that it would be sensible to look at the draft on the future in more detail at a meeting in the following week.
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22 December 1983
6. S. Clift
2 Marrison
CODE 18-77
SECRET
سات
CO Hum
Hong Kong Department WH 306 233 438 1