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of the Governor of Macao the contract should be signed
with a British group connected with the Hong Kong and
Shanghai Bank" and not with the Japanese group. The
negotiations with the British group, the memorandum
continued, had reached an advanced stage and the fortuguese
Government considered that they should authorise the
Governor to sign the contrɛet when agreement had been
reached. Before doing so, however, they desired to
acquaint His Majesty's Government with these new aspects of
the case. To all this we replied that it was very satis-
factory to His Majesty's Government that a British firm
should receive the contract. Since that time there has
been no news to the effect that the contract has actually
been awarded to the British group, or, for the matter of
that to the Japanese group either.
Our latest information is that the Japanese are
continuing pressure through their local dentist (Wada) and
the Government of Formosa, who are said to have made a
new offer for the water-works and to have stated their
intention of "exerting pressure through Lisbon".
I need
not/