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Reference........
8. I presented Prof Macmillan with a copy of Britain: The Handbook 1988 for the University library.
9.
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I was received by the Governor. He said a lot was happening and he was determined that several projects should come to fruition. New development would be concentrated on the islands of Taipa and Coloanne. He had no doubt about the airport
it would be built and it would be to international standards. He hoped a start would be made in June; by the time the airport was ready Kai Tak in Hong Kong would be at the limit of its capacity and this would give Macao an advantage. The fact that there was to be no immediate start on a new airport in Hong Kong had been a factor in the decision to go ahead in Macao. He said that Gordon Wu had been to Macao to talk about the airport there. [Mr Wu has since told me he now doubts the viability of an airport in Macao.] Mr Wu was also interested in building (and investing in) the bridge between Macau and Taipa and he would be building Taipa City which would have 120,000 living units. [Mr Wu has confirmed that he is working on both these projects and his consultants are Ove Arup.] I asked the Governor if the Chinese authorities had expressed a view on the airport. The Governor said they had been kept informed and had confirmed that their own plans for an airport in Zhuhai were based on a regional requirement. Macao did not need Chinese agreement to go ahead with the international airport, but the Chinese had shown, more or less, that they had no objections. The Governor said he would welcome a British commercial involvement in the building of the airport and he knew there had been discussions with the British Airports Authority. The Governor said he also hoped that Robert Maxwell would become involved in Macao TV. Mr Maxwell was talking to the authorities in Lisbon about a licence to operate a service in Portugal and a concession in Macao would be a sensible adjunct to that. The Governor said he had discussed with Sir David Wilson the concern in Hong Kong that the Macao signal should not be boosted to such an extent that it would be received in Hong Kong. The Governor said I would have noted that Hong Kong television was available in Macao, boosted by a signal from Lantau Island. The matter of the signal reaching Hong Kong was something for whoever had the concession for Macao television, not the Macao Government.
10. I mentioned to the Governor that the trustees of the Protestant Cemetery were concerned about a proposed development alongside the property. He said he had received our letter and had asked Mr Cabral to look into the matter. The Governor said he had visited the cemetery and agreed that it was a place of great interest.
11.
He is a
I had a discussion with Jose Gomes, the Diplomatic Adviser. member of the Portuguese Foreign Service. He said he was still feeling his way ană determining the scope of his job. He thought his role would be much like the Political Adviser's in Hong Kong. He confirmed that there were 80-100,000 people in Macao (a quarter of the population) who were entitled to or held Portuguese passports. They were mostly people who were born in Macao before 1981 when a local birth certificate was sufficient to qualify for Portuguese citizenship. Now, to qualify for citizenship a child born in Macao had to have a Portuguese parent. He did not see the number of passport holders as a big problem for Portugal. Surprisingly few had asked to go to Portugal and it seemed most would be interested (if they moved at all) in North America or Australia or perhaps somewhere else in Europe.
12.
I had lunch with Father Lancelot. He said the new administration did seem to be more determined than its predecessors to do something. However there were sceptics in Macao who said they had seen it all before and who pointed to
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