JOHN SWIRE & SONS LTD
Swire House
59 Buckingham Gate
London SWIE 6AJ
Registered Office
Registered Number 133143 ENGLAND
Av. Paul, HK.)
PS / hot Caithers
NIKE 18212, Si J Coles
ECEIVE
7
From Sir Adrian Swire
Chairman
13 MAY 1991
Thm. Bino
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Telegrams:
TEMSELOAF LONDON SW1
Telephone:
071-834 7717
Fax: 071-630 0353 Teler: 888800
Answer back:
SWIRE G
707
The Rt. Hon. Douglas Hurd, CBE., MP.,
کا
Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs,
Foreign & Commonwealth Office,
Downing Street,
LONDON, SW1A 2AH.
Dear Douglas,
618
Thank you for your letter of April 29th.
1st May, 1991.
м бинен 65
Mr Cox
Mr. Stove
Ciniclats.
la Clear enough.
It is good of you to offer to find time to have a talk about the China and Hong Kong situation. I would very much like to take you up on this offer at some point, but perhaps now, in the present lull before the next storm, is not the moment. We seem at present to be seeing things from much the same perspective.
The airport question poses very worrying issues for the Swire Group. I quoted to you our estimate of the cost of the move at £715 mn. and of Cathay Pacific's planned fleet replacement and expansion programme at £2.36 bn. If or when Chek Lap Kok goes ahead, Swires will have to consider very deeply what proportion of these sums can be found from our own relatively limited resources and/or from partners, new finance, banks, and so on. The extent to which we will commit ourselves will depend on an amalgam of factors at the time which will include the political attitudes of China, confidence within Hong Kong, the international state of the airline industry, the perceived security of Cathay Pacific's traffic rights, and, as much as anything, the terms and conditions which the Hong Kong Government and Airport Authority may impose for operation at the new airport.
In short, Swires are close to the classic situation which every businessman dreads most of all, namely the need to take a decision one way or another, but where the stakes are so large that to get it wrong pulls the whole house down.
Please do not trouble to acknowledge this letter.
Yours
Aduxi
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