TNAG-1176-FCO40-1478-Air-services-between-the-UK--China-and-Hong-Kong-1982 — Page 96

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JOHN SWIRE & SONS LTD

Regis House

43-46 King William Street

London EC4R 9BE

Registered Office

Registered Number 133143 ENGLAND

copy HICH 14/1py please to

Lord Bridges

Mr. Adams

Telegrams:

TEMSELOAF LONDON EC4

Telephone:

01-623 3030

Teler: 888800

Answer back:

SWIRE G

1. Tom Gray (MITED) 23rd June 1982

Alan Donald, Esq., C.M.G...

Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London, SW1A 2AH.

Dear Alan,

Mr. Willia

then to Mr. dlife (IGD)

ENTER.

dur Vossen -BU nital for $17 12/3

Astmeld

27/6

It was very good of you and Dick Clift to see John Browne and myself yesterday. For our part, we felt that our general discussion about the future of Hong Kong was most helpful.

It goes without saying that a satisfactory outcome to the 1997 problem is of enormous importance to Swires in view of our wide spread of business interests in Hong Kong. But, perhaps, in particular, we are concerned to see that the longterm future of Cathay Pacific Airways is not put at risk as the result of any agreement or understanding between H.M.G. and Peking. C.P.A. is a very considerable and growing British interest:- by the end of this year we will be operating seven 747s and nine TriStars; we will have an exclusively Rolls-Royce powered fleet, having already spent well in excess of £100 m. on R.R. engines; we expect next year to operate a new service Trans-Pacific to Vancouver; we continue to put considerable effort into developing the Hong Kong/ London v.v. route; we have also, as you know, acquired B.A.'s 747 freighter, the only such animal on the British register.

All this, with new 747s costing around US$70 million apiece, requires massive capital commitment and, particularly in the light of the present depressed state of the international aviation industry, a good deal of faith. Within Swires, we consider the commercial risks of this expansion to be acceptable, but that does mean our constantly making political judgments about the future of Hong Kong and, inter alia, the continuing control of traffic rights on the present pattern. against this background that our general talk was so useful.

It was

Many thanks.

Yours sincerely,

Adnai bune выбнё

c.c. Christopher Roberts, Esq., Department of Trade