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5.
The Minister said that H.M.G. had in the past looked after Hong Kong's interest, e.g. the sharing of
But H.M.G. was profitable routes between BOAC and CPA. committed to the principle of reciprocal arrangements over landing rights. He said that S.A.S. were not prepared to offer any reciprocal rights, and that the establishment of a direct S.A.S. link between Hong Kong and Copenhagen would cost BOAC some £2 million in revenue. In answer to his question: why should H.M.G. make an exception in this case the Governor replied that it was because Hong Kong was asking H.M.G. to do so and was as entitled to consideration as BOAC.
6.
The Financial Secretary said that, although it was normal for landing rights to be the subject of recipr- ocal agreements, H.M.G. had made an exception in the case
What of KLM when this had been in H.M.G.'s own interests. Hong Kong was now seeking was a concession which was in Hong Kong's interests in regard to both trade and tourism. These discussions had gone on since 1967 and both the unofficial members of Councils and industrialists had
But there was no avoided politically embarrassing H.M.G. assurance that this hot issue could be kept quiet for much longer and it needed to be quickly resolved.
7.
The Minister said that there would be a meeting in April between BOAC and SAS to discuss whether they could reach an acceptable compromise on the issue; this would be a follow up to the meeting in Oslo in January this year. He suggested that Hong Kong's interest could best be served by applying pressure on S.A.S. reasonably to negotiate the terms of compensation at those talks. If this was successful there would then be a good possibility of making progress.
8.
The Governor concluded by saying that he hoped the Minister was aware of the pressure of public opinion in Hong Kong over H.M.G.'s apparent indifference to the inter- est of Hong Kong in establishing good relations with Scandinavia.
Government House Hong Kong
28th March, 1973
CONFIDENTIAL
機密
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