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away in air services terms. No doubt the flow of ministerial
and other important visits to Malaysian played a vital part.
3. The DOT and BA were throughout determined to avoid paying
a price for a supersonic Concorde, first because they feared
setting a precedent which many others could follow and secondly
because of BA's ambivalent attitude towards this Concorde service.
BA have taken the view that there was simply not enough profit
generated by the service to make it worth their while paying
extra for it. This is one factor which has made the issue so
difficult to handle. It was an uncomfortable posture for us, to
appear to want resumption very badly, when we knew, and the
Malaysians knew, that they had a right to withhold permission
for resumption and demand a price for it. As the despatch shows,
the Malaysians played rather a weak hand in air services terms
with great skill. They seized quickly on the abrasive reputation
of the senior British negotiator and play this up, coupling it
cleverly with unfounded allegations about slights to Malaysian
Ministers in their calls on their opposite numbers in London or
unwillingness to allow Malaysian Ministers to call on their equals
here. They also made much of the fact that British ministerial
visits to Malaysia had recently been infrequent. We have done
a great deal to remedy the position, but an imbalance is likely
to persist for as long as Malaysians like to do their shopping
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