SECRET
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY No. 51
- 7 JAN 1977
12
CDS Drace-Francis Esq Acting Political Adviser Government Secretariat HONG KONG
HKK182/412/1
6 January 197
PREVIOUS
1.55
AL
RE
6
5 (8
PROPOSED AIRPORT AT MACAO
1. I am replying to Alan Donald's letters of 13 and 20 October (your reference SCR 13/4841/59V) to me on this subject. We have since seen copies of the Portuguese Consul-General's letter of 12 November and Denys Roberts' reply of 19 November. You, for your part, should have seen copies of the memorandum of 18 November from the Portuguese Embassy here and of our interim reply of 1 December (copies enclosed for convenience).
2. You asked for the views of those concerned in Whitehall on the question of an air services agreement with the Portuguese. Colonel Leandro misused the term "air services agreement". We already have a conventional Air Services Agreement with Portugal under which the air services between our two countries are operated. Any amendment to it can be dealt with by consultation between aeronautical authorities and any require- ment for a Macao-Hong Kong service would be handled in that context. What Leandro is after (and this is borne out by the first paragraph of the Portuguese memorandum) is, I think, our agreement to, or, at least, our acquiescence in, the airport project. This would not require an "air services agreement” We have consulted other departments in the Office and the DoT and the following is the result:
(a) We fully agree with the line that the Governor took with Leandro on 7 October to the effect that any attempt by London and Lisbon to work out an agreement would be "a waste of time if China had not given prior assent" (paragraph 21 of the record enclosed with Alan Donald's first letter). I note that Denys Roberts reaffirmed this point to the Portuguese Consul-General in his letter of 19 November, so perhaps it has been registered by now. We also agree that we would be asking for trouble
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