CONFIDENTIAL
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Cypher/Cat A
PRIORITY HONG KONG TO COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
(D.T.D.)
6 September, 1967
Tel. No. 1353
105
CONFIDENTIAL
Addressed to Commonwealth Office telegram No. 1353 of
6 September.
Repeated for information to Lisbon.
Your telegram 1828: Macao.
HW
Assistant Political Adviser and a language student visited the Consulate on the night of 5/6 September and removed all remaining classified material that they could discover. far as we know therefore there is no classified material left in the Consulate. They also removed the flag which had become a tattered disgrace.
20
As
In answer to his question the Secretary-General of Macao Government was told that no final decision had been made about the future of the Consulate but that it was unlikely to open again for some considerable time. He was not in the least surprised.
mid-
3. Unless there is any chance that your decision regarding the Consulate will envisage a reopening in the foreseeable future and the re-employment of the present staff we should like to tell them at the end of this week that they are being paid off in September. They have been kept in suspense now for over three months. Although they have been reasonably treated it would be unfair not to tell them at the earliest possible opportunity what our intentions are. We could if necessary merely say that their employment is being terminated because the Consulate will not be reopened in the near future.
40 The Secretary-General has gone back on the specific promise (referred to in paragraph 3 of my telegram 1206) to get out the personal effects of the Consul and Vice-Consul. He now talks in terms of getting them out piecemeal over a considerable period of time. He thought that October would be a difficult month. The likelihood therefore is that Ions and Kemble will be without their personal effects for several months, unless we are prepared to take a chance and against the advice of the Macao Government (who would be delighted to absolve themselves of all responsibility) arrange for professional packers to remove the effects openly. now have in Hong Kong several suitcases of personal items, which, if you agree, we could send off to Ions and Kemble immediately.
Foreign Office please pass to Lisbon as my telegram No. M551.
Sent 09012/6 September Recd. 09102/6 September
0.A.G.
[Repeated as requested]
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