CONFIDENTIAL
that it would be impossible for him to produce any useful list of possible evacuees since the only way of compiling such a list would be to ask each individual.
He was
not prepared to take such action at the present time for obvious reasons; indeed, he suggested at one point that Government servants and their families would not be evacuated. The Governor was surprised to learn of the request that the Hong Kong Government be prepared to send a ship to Macao for Portuguese evacuees. He said that this was patently out of the question.
At
5. Communications with the Consul are a problem. present we can contact him fairly easily by telephone (which is of course not secure) and by personal visits (which are reasonably convenient since hydrofoils do the journey in 75 minutes). In an emergency we could also hope to get messages to him via the direct (but not secure) link between the H.K. and Macao Police. It is the Consul's view that, given his small staff and the great burden of their present Consular work, it would be impracticable and time- wasting for him to operate a link for normal cypher traffic. If the need for more frequent visits arises, we can press into service the Diplomatic Service Language Students, unless you see objection. In addition the Political
Adviser will work out with the Consul a series of quite unofficial codewords for use solely between the two offices so that the telephone may be used to better effect than hitherto.
6. The Consul has no copy of Hampshire's letter referred to. If it was graded secret, it will have been destroyed. There seems to be no copy of it in Hong Kong. He has no valuable papers other than the 'R' Code.
7. We are looking into the question of arranging for a vessel to go to Macao if necessary to pick up members of the British Community. The Consul's preliminary view was that this might be impracticable and that the answer might lie simply in getting the Portuguese to reserve a certain amount of space for the British Community on the ferries or hydrofoils if they are still running. It seems clear to us, however, that in the event of a complete blockade of Macao our best course would be to ask the C.P.C. for permission to send in one of the ferries to take off British subjects.
8. For what it is worth, the Governor of Macao gave the Consul the impression that he was reasonably hopeful of a speedy settlement; the outstanding issue was now only the Portuguese translation of his letter. It is however, clear that he is trying at all costs to maintain confidence
CONFIDENTIAL
/and