BY BAG
CONFIDENTIAL
SAVING TELEGRAM
HKE 184/1
RECUPT
・
9 APR 1979
125
202
مع
*..
CONFIDENTIAL
FROM FOREIGN & COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
TO SINGAPORE
TEL NO 1
SAVING OF 6 APRIL 1979
مال
89.4
لا
INFO SAVING TO CANBERRA: HONG KONG (for Governor & BCARFE):
BANGKOK: JAKARTA: KUALA LUMPUR: MANILA
MY TEL NO 79
(NOT TO ALL): UK/SINGAPORE AIR SERVICES
1, Low Choon Ming (Minister/Counsellor of the Singapore High Commission in London) came to see Rogers at his own request on 5 April. This was ostensibly a courtesy visit since Low had not called on Rogers since his appointment here last Autumn. Not unexpectedly, however, it soon emerged that the real reason for his visit was to follow up Mr Rajaratnam's letter to the Foreign Secretary, dated 31 March (see footnote at end), and to probe our attitude towards the Australian ICAP Proposals.
2.
Rogers explained that whereas during the second half of last year we had expressed ourselves as being "attracted" by the ICAP proposals but had refrained from any commitment, the position had changed substantially just before Christmas. We had then agreed the statement made by Mr Nixon and thus committed ourselves to implementing the scheme and the fares that went with it. We had been at pains to inform the Singapore Government before Mr Nixon's announcement. Passengers had now been travelling at the reduced fares which ICAP had made possible since 1 February 1979 and it was inconceivable that (apart from possible increases due to the rise in the cost of fuel etc) the UK Government could deliberately
increase those fares. In particular it was out of the question that the end to end passengers should pay more mercly in order to profit SIA. He had therefore been glad to note that at the ASEAN/Australian meeting in Jakarta on 20/21 March the ASEAN delegation had accepted the maintenance of the reduced fares for end to end travel as a joint objective.
3. On the other hand the UK was by no means oblivious to the
interests of the ASEAN countries and in particular to the Singaporean interest in stopover tourism. We were also prepared to take into account the fact that SIA had entered into certain
commitments for the purchase of new equipment on the assumption of
/a further
CONFIDENTIAL