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I am not, in this letter, raising any immediate request for specific action at Prime Minister level, but I felt it right, at this juncture, to invite your attention to the scale of CPA's current operations and concerns; to the fact that the airline, faced with a number of difficult decisions, is at a watershed; and to the direct and indirect relevance of all this to the U.K. and Hong Kong's future. We ask that, against this background, HMG will give the airline the maximum sympathetic support when key issues do arise (as they no doubt will) in which HMG is directly involved.
I believe it is well-known to HMG that the Swire Group is not, in political terms, a persistent hard lobbyist (indeed we have been criticised privately from time to time for not making sufficiently clear to HMG the national importance of our wares); but that conversely, if we do raise an issue at Prime Minister and/or Secretary of State level, we would hope that the issue would be considered as a significant one. In the case of CPA, I can foresee possible scenarios where I would wish to ask you for a personal meeting and I hope, if this should eventuate, that such a meeting would prove possible.
I am copying this to the FCO, DTI and DTp. I am also passing a copy to Lord Tombs, as Chairman of Rolls-Royce, given the latter's strong interest in continuing to provide engines for CPA aircraft.
Yours sincerely
Jdusi Carme
c.c. Secretary of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Secretary of State, Department of Trade & Industry Secretary of State, Department of Transport
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