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PS/Lord Caithness
DATE:
4 December 1990
CC:
MKB. QQ
アクリ
Miss Marsoon
Ms Major RM 7112.
Mr Jayar
257712
Mr Store 7/12/5/2
Mr Paul
Paul, HKD
FROM:
LUNCH WITH SIR ADRIAN SWIRE
Mr McLaren-
Mr Burns
Mr Hughes, AMD
Mr Colvin, SEAD
1.
Sir Adrian Swire, Chairman of John Swire and Sons Ltd, hosted lunch for Lord Caithness, who was accompanied by Mr McLaren, today.
2. Introducing the company Sir Adrian said that he would concentrate on their interests in Hong Kong since that was Lord Caithness' principal concern. The group's two main areas of activity there were aviation (they owned 41 aircraft) and property (worth approximately £500 million). They employed 25,000 people with a total annual salary bill of £350 million. This made them, if no longer the largest employer after the Hong Kong Government, the company with the highest salary bill in Hong Kong.
3.
Sir Adrian passed briefly over a number of current issues in Hong Kong. He said that Swire were very pro PADS (Mr McLaren commented that coming from the owners of Cathay Pacific this was influential support. He hoped Swires would speak out) but thought that the Hong Kong Government had not made a good job of selling it to the Chinese. In particular they had underplayed the potential developmental value of Kai Tak. He was worried about the brain drain especially in the engineering field. Swires (Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company) had lost 200 of their 700 engineers. There was no mention of Singapore in this context. On Vietnamese Boat People, Sir Adrian said that Cathay Pacific had encountered a great deal of criticism and intimidation as a result of taking on the return flight last December.
It was an exercise they would not want to repeat unless the UNHCR were clearly in control. Turning to nationality issues, Sir Adrian said that Swires found themselves in a slightly invidious position as a result of having two representatives on the Advisory Committee. Mr McLaren explained that it was partly for that reason that we had thought it right to include a representative of Jardines.
/4.
Sir Adrian