CONFIDENTIAL
request to maintain their earlier frequencies with larger aircraft. Their main contention all along was that the imbalance in earnings need not be so much in Malaysia's favour if the British airlines availed them- selves of the unlimited capacity to which they were entitled on the London-Kuala Lumpur route.
7. A further complication arose 'just when it was necessary to press the Malaysians over permission for Concorde. On 4 December 1977 a MAS aircraft on an internal flight was hijacked, subsequently crashing and killing the Minister of Agriculture. This left the Cabinet, and Manickavasagam in particular, upset emotionally and embarrassed politically because the tragedy was attributable to poor airport security.
8. Specific Malaysian discontents merged with others more general and a burning sense amongst Ministers was created that we had taken their goodwill for us too much for granted. When I first met Datuk Hussein Onn, the Prime Minister, on 12 January 1978, he stressed that the Malaysians were a proud and sentimental people who attached more importance to personal ties than dollars and cents a theme he reiterated during the visit of the Rt Hon John Smith, the Secretary of State for Trade, in January 1979 - and their closeness with us increased their sense of hurt at the way they had been treated in the DC10 negotiations and over our application for Concorde. Furthermore, they felt that Westminster, Whitehall and British business had neglected Malaysia for some time as a result of which Britain had incidentally lost many opportunities.
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