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were the equivalent of scheduled services, we would still need the approval of London. The matter could not now be dealt with simply as a local issue within the powers of DCA Hong Kong. Having said that, I told them what I had heard from the Embassy in Peking and added that, before doing anything about their representations, I would like them to check that they represented the latest thinking in Canton, since there seemed to be a contradiction between what was being said by CAAC Peking and the message they had given me from CAAC Canton.
5.
Today the NCNA came back to me to say that there had indeed been some confusion. They had received a further message from CAAC Canton at 11 p.m. last night saying that the scheduled services were to continue for another month. Following discussions with George Rogers of the DOT who is now here, he then sent a telegram to the DOT (Allot 11 of 27 February) instructing Stables to issue a new permit.
6.
It is difficult to know precisely what lessons to draw from this tangled skein. However, there are two points which strike me as emerging from the details in this letter and associated events which have been reported separately by telegram:
(i)
(ii)
there are indeed difficulties in the Chinese mind about a close association between "local" services from Canton to Hong Kong and discussions on trunk routes and the associated complications of the ASA. I suspect that, besides the difficulties caused by their attitude towards the status of Hong Kong, a major complication is that the ASA matters involve more than one Ministry; and
It
it is very difficult dealing with the Canton- Hong Kong service when the full triangle of London, Peking and Hong Kong is involved. is not only a triangle on our side, but for the Chinese as well. It is clear that communications between Peking and Canton leave much to be desired.
There is of course a third point:
confusion is
7. twice confounded when the normally efficient Foreign Office communications system breaks down. Let us hope, however, that this is a temporary phenomenon not to be repeated.
cc:
RJT McLaren Esq (HKGD) TJ B George Esq (PEKING)
(D C Wilson)
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