000 79
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Ref.:
CO 537/1427
THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES
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Ins
restrictions. Further information is given in the enclosed Terms and Conditions of supply of National Archives leaflet. Please note that this copy is supplied subject to the National Archives' terms and conditions and that your use of it may be subject to copyright
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Tak airport is thus in the neighbourhood of $10,750,000 er £672,000,
but this sum will not be realisable until after the Deep Bay airport
has been completed.
8.
In the present financial circumstances of the
Colony, it is extremely difficult to estimate what proportion of any
lean granted for the purpose of financing the construction of this
It is airport could eventually be repaid from Hong Kong funds.
obvious that the benefits to Hong Kong from the scheme will be in-
direct and that the revere obtainable from landing fees and other
charges will not be sufficient to meet interest charges on any loan.
The airport will, however, be an important link in the chain of
Imperial Communications and will also provide excellent facilities
for planes of the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm. Its value
will not be limited to air line operators from the United Kingdom
but it will also be of importance to the trans-Pacific services
operated from Australia and New Zealand. I am therefore of the
opinion that the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Air Ministry
might reasonably be asked to contribute half of the cost of
construction in the form of a free grant of £2,000,000. I wish
also to apply for a grant of £1,000,000 from the General Reserve
of the Colonial Welfare and Development Fund. I mote that during
the period from 1st April, 1945, to 31st March, 1946, only a fow
comparatively minor grants were made in aid of the development of
civil aviation and assume that this is accounted for by the fact
that in most Colonies airfields were brought to their maximam
development during the earlier years of the war. Such expansion
to meet modern requirements was precluded in Hong Kong by the
enemy occupation and it is only now that this major need for the
development of the Colony has become outstandingly apparent.
9.
The balance of the cost of construction could fairly
be charged to the revemes of the Colony and would be offset to a
large extent by the eventual sale of Kai Tak. If the proceeds of
the Kai Tak sale exceeded £1,000,000 the Colonial Welfare and