SCR 13/4841/59
CONFIDENTIAL
RC Samuel Esq
Far Eastern Department
F CO
MACAU
HUK 020/1
RECEIVIO
7
*>YRGY
DEK OFFICER
INDEX
PA
REVSTRY
ction Teken
15 August, 1978.
The Governor of Macau, Colonel Leandro, returned from Lisbon yesterday. He had spent longer there than he originally anticipated because of the government crisis. I spoke to Leandro today before he went on to Macau.
2.
I asked him whether he had managed to discover precisely what had been said about Macau during the discussions with the Chinese in Paris. He told me that, to his great surprise, he had discovered that the Chinese had indeed referred to the question. Furthermore, they had done so in writing, in what he described as a written communication in French passed to the Portuguese Embassy. This had suggested that the Portuguese should agree that Macau was "Chinese territory administered by Portugal". Leandro said he found it difficult to find any satisfactory argument to account for the Chinese action. He had two hypotheses. One was that the Chinese fear that a future Portuguese Assembly might try to change the existing constitution and write in a stronger Portuguese claim to Macau than existed in the present formulation. The other was that the Chinese anticipated loss of effective control by the Portuguese government and vished to safeguard against any other pover getting a foothold in Macau. (Oddly enough, he said this with reference to Spain rather than the Soviet Union which is what I had expected.) said that neither explanation was satisfactory and he intended to ask his Chinese contacts in Macau what was behind the move in Paris.
3.
He
I also asked Leandro about reports in the press here today which quoted him as saying that he would resign his post in November this year when he will have completed four years in Macau. Leandro said that he was indeed
/contd...
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