811.79690 Pan American Airways/67
The British Ambassador ( Lindsay ) to the Secretary of State
Sir: I have the honour to inform you under instructions from His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs that a formal application has been received by His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom from Pan-American Airways Company for permission to extend to the Colony of Hong-Kong their proposed air service between the West Coast of America and the Philippine Islands. Copies of the letter addressed by the Company to the Secretary of State for Air and of the reply returned by the Air Ministry are enclosed herein.6
2. It will be observed from the latter document that His Majesty’s Government have decided not to enforce for the time being the normal requirement of reciprocity in return for the granting of these facilities, but have nevertheless felt obliged to state that the grant to the Company of operating facilities in Hong Kong for a period of five years is on the understanding that, if during this period facilities are afforded by the United States Government to other nations to operate air services on the trans-Pacific route, similar facilities will automatically be afforded for the operation of British air services on that route. It is in view of the fact that the fulfilment of this understanding does not lie in the hands of Pan-American Airways but is necessarily dependent on the decisions of the United States Government that I have been instructed to communicate to you the terms of the present arrangement.
I have [etc.]
- Neither printed.↩