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an example of how far the changes went, the Prime Minister interestingly mentioned that the previous constitution had required that the health service in Portugal should be socialised. This was not now the case. On privatisation,
I asked he said that a new law would be introduced soon. whether it would change the rules regarding foreign investors holdings and what the new rules would be. The Prime Minsiter said that foreign investors and individual Portuguese companies would be able to own larger portions of the
The privatised shares, but he declined to say how much. French Ambassador asked if we could obtain a text of the revised version of the constitution. The Danish Ambassador said that he had already got one from the Parliament. (Could we please obtain?)
The
6. The Dutch Ambassador asked about China and Macau. Prime Minister said that the Portuguese Government had condemned the violation of human rights in China. They had no indication however that China was not going to comply with the joint declaration on Macau, which was a good one. They had received an indirect message from the Chinese that the declaration would be observed completely. He had not yet seen Sr Carneiro since the latter's return from Macau, but would be doing so on 14 June. Interestingly, the Prime Minister never once mentioned that the President has a role to play in Macau. He claimed that the Portuguese minority entitled to Portuguese passports was only 60,000 out of the total population of half a million in Macau.
7.
On Africa, the Prime Minister talked about the "wind of peace" which seemed to be blowing in Southern Africa. He did not say whether he would be going to Mozambique this year, but I gather f from his diplomatic adviser that this is
I still on the cards, although nothing has been fixed. talked to Dr Almeida Fernandes, the Prime Minister's Chefe de Gabinete, after the lunch. He had the latest figures for the public service strike on 14 June. The total figure was 30%: interestingly the highest percentage was in the Council of Ministers itself at 37%, with the same figure for the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was 27%. (These figures relate to the abstention rate.)
edi
CDS Drace-Francis
15 June 1989
CC:
P H Williams Esq, SED, FCO
ECD (I), FCO
HKD, FCO
FED, FCO
CAfD, FCO
Chancery, PEKING
Chancery, MAPUTO
JLG, HONG KONG
British Trade Commission, HCNG KONG
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