DEPARTMENT OF TRADE
CAIR.1A
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سیار
?'
R Allen Esq
Far Eastern Department
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Foreign & Commonwealth Office
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FEL
Your reference
Our reference
Date
Fel 184
184/1
1 NOV 1978
31
ED/9/02
October 1978
See Hase
Hkk184
RECEIVED EN RÉGY NO. 51
IN
DECK OFFICER
INDEX
RE
PA
Action Ty
UK/CHINA AIR SERVICES AGREEMENT
حلم
We spoke on the 'phone the other day about a response to Peking Tel No.663 of 23 October. I said we would like the opportunity of consulting Mr Rogers on his return from Canada. This we have done to-day and what I am about to say has been cleared with him.
We are prepared to go along with stage 1 and 2 of the proposed formula but certainly not at this juncture with stage 3; we think this carries far too big a risk for CPA's services to Hong Kong. This, not surprisingly, accords with the Hong Kong Government view.
As I said to you in my letter we would still prefer our original wording to that how being proposed in paragraph 4 of Tel.663 because of the very clear antithesis. After making certain enquiries back in 1976 we took the decision then that it would be legitimate to refer to CAL as a private airline. Looking at the past papers I am however bound to say that I do not now see the evidence as being conclusive one way or the other. We accept that the Taiwanese Government probably does have a lot of say in the affairs of CAL but that does not of itself preclude its being a private company; it does have a registered capital. We think Hong Kong should be asked as to why they are so assertive on this point.
We would not go along with paragraph 7 of the telegram. We are certainly most interested in exploring the prospects of getting substantive amendments to the ASA e.g. overflying rights for all BA's services to Hong Kong, traffic rights between Hong Kong and Peking, and the addition of certain intermediate route points such as Bangkok and Bombay which were denied to us before because the PRC did not then have diplomatic relations with those countries. There has been such a change in the climate in Peking since 1973 that we think that at least we ought to explore what are the prospects for getting such changes now. Obviously the manner of approach to it would need careful thought. Changes desirable as a consequence of PRC adherence to the Chicago Convention would be a convenient cloak but we would not be very interested in having talks just for that and draft-polishing-up purposes.
TH Stables
C2591
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