CONFIDENTIAL
have begun to question whether their stand on Concorde would cause us to reject their otherwise legitimate requests over traffic rights.. Nevertheless, some. officials in the Ministry of Transport under the obstinate Secretary General, Tuan Haji Mohd Noor, were not happy about being overruled and fought a delaying rearguard action, seeking ways over the establishment of Concorde's final route of retaining some degree of leverage over the course of the forthcoming Air Services talks. But in the event details of the route were agreed during the visit of the Secretary of State for Trade, Mr John Smith, between 6 and 9 January.
17. Malaysian Ministers regard approval for Concorde as a gesture of goodwill which they have made in the hope and confidence that there will be a favourable and generous response from us over traffic rights. In deciding whether to extend the trial period, the Malaysians may wish not only to test possible environ- mental damage - and vocal environmentalists have already challenged the Government's decision but also to judge our attitude over traffic rights. It is important that the new opportunity given us to sort out Civil Aviation problems amicably within the 6-month period should be taken. The Malaysians were gratified by Mr Smith's assurance that he would take a personal interest in the course of the negotiations.
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18. It would no doubt have been better had it been possible to confine the technical issues to discussion by experts. However, the Malaysians, for a variety of reasons, attached political importance to getting their DC10s into London. The trouble thus arose from a combination of technical and political factors. The
/technical
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