81
made by Japanese private individuels of the Portuguese
Legation at Tokyo sa to the possibility of acquiring land
for settlement in Timor; nothing, however, had, he said,
come of this scheme, as it had been discouraged by the
Portuguese Government. We concluded our (verbal) communi-
cation by expressing the hope that if the Macao project
proved to be serious it would be nipped in the bud.
The
Portuguese Embassy thereupon telegraphed about the question
to Lisbon.
On 18th April Fernandes told us that the Portuguese
Government had "called" the question "to themselves" BO
that it might be duly studied at Lisbon; all further action
would be suspended pending this examination.
On 17th April, a man from the firm of Hendry Bros. (the
"friends" in London of Messrs. Halcolm of Shanghai ) tele-
phoned to say that Malcolms had received the contract. They
seemed delighted and gave us all the credit.
Things were not, however, apparently quite so far
advanced as this for, on the 23rd April Fernandes came round
again leaving a memorandum to the effect that "in the opinin
of /