22-DEC-1992
17:13
BRITISH TRADE COMMISSION
Peter Ricketts Esq
Head of HKD
FCO
Der Pato
MACAU
RESTRICTED
02013
RECEIVED
P.02
41
British Trade Commission Hong Kong
STRY
22 December 1992
1992
да
LANG
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KNH 24/10
Mr Davies (V
2. Mr Quote
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was
a larger than
The party
1. On 19 December I was invited with my family to a birthday party in honour of Father Lancelot Rodrigues MEE, life figure who was honoured earlier in the year.
an extraordinary affair, over one hundred seated on a sunny terrace before the Army Training School in Coloane Island looking out on a scene that could have been the Douro Valley. I sat next to the Governor and we had a long, relaxed talk about recent developments in Hong Kong and surrounding region. I took the opportunity to pass on warn regards from Hugh Arbuthnot in Lisbon, from whom I had just received a Christmas letter: he was pleased and asked for these to be reciprocated.
2. Inevitably, he was keenly interested in developments between Hong Kong and China and he demonstrated strong support fox the Govettor and understanding of the politics in terms of Hong Kong and Western public opinion. He observed that the Chinese authorities were puzzled by the phenomenon of a political Governor and yearned for an age when private deals
He said how much could be struck by the national authorities. he has enjoyed the Governor's visit to Macau and how well they had got on personally. he was anxious to keep abreast of developments on Hong Kong and was grateful for our efforts.
HIS
3. In response to my question he said that Hong Kong had not been mentioned to him in any of Macau's recent contacts with the Chinese. I asked how Portugal orchestrated negotiations wich Beking. He said this was largely his job. authorities were pretty relaxed and there were no big public issues. There was no simple pattern to the exchanges. JLG was act necessarily the list line of communication,
Theix
since
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