TNAG-0870-FCO40-1080-Air-services-between-Hong-Kong-and-the-UK-1979 — Page 136

DRAFT

LETTER

To:-

JR Steele Esq

Department of Trade

1 Victoria Street SW1

In Confidence

1.

DSR 11

Type 1 +

From

MR CORTAZZI

Telephone No. Ext.

Department

Thank you for your letter of 18 June.

the draft telegram you enclosed despatched.

1 have had

I am however

not happy, and I do not believe FCO Ministers here would

be happy either, with the prospect of CPA taking their

chances at a CAA hearing without anything being done to

rectify the bias in the Civil Aviation Act 1971 in favour

of UK-based airlines. In your letter you say that your

Secretary of State rejected the idea of giving the CAA a

direction to treat CPA on the same basis as the UK airlines

concerned, on the advice of your Solicitor.

Would it be

possible for you to let me have (or your Solicitor might

be able to let our Legal Advisers have) a fuller explanation

of why this solution would cause difficulty. If nothing

was done to remedy the bias, I should have thought that

public opinion in this country would have much sympathy

with the Hong Kong Government's complaints, on the grounds

of natural justice.

2.

11

I am sure you will agree that we should do all we

can to avoid an outcome where a second British airline

got on the route and CPA did not. From Hong Kong's point

of view this would be much worse than the present position.

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Dd 0532000 800M 5/78 HMSO Bracknell