TNAG-0035-FCO40-71-Relations-with-Macao-1968 — Page 163

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without a public announcement. Mr. Hohler assured the Ambassador that we would certainly consider his suggestion.

The Ambassador then made a strong personal plea for us to reconsider the decision not to arrange transport facilities from Macao to Hong Kong. He said that he did not know precisely the conditions in Macao and it might be that there was sufficient shipping available in Macao. However, the fact that he had be en twice instructed to make this request suggested to him that there was a real need for help from Hong Kong in arranging transport. With all the resources at their disposal, surely the Hong Kong authorities could provide some help.

Mr. Hohler explained the difficulties confronting us. He said that we wished to avoid risking a dispute with the Chinese over the delineation of territorial waters, that we did not wish to give the Chinese grounds for stating that we were intervening in the Macao dispute, and we wished to avoid any possible challenge by the Chinese to Hong Kong vessels approaching Macao.

The Ambassador said, again speaking personally, that he thought the Chinese had no intention of making an armed attack on Macao. They would be glad that the Portuguese were leaving and would not, he thought, wish to interfere. Could we not instruct the captains of the vessels involved to avoid incidents with the Chinese by turning back if challenged? He did not see why the movement of vessels from Hong Kong across these waters should result in a territorial dispute with China. If the situation arose that the Portuguese were given only a few hours to leave Macao, they would need to use all the transport available, from Hong Kong as well as Macao, if they were to get away.

This was a humanitarian need.

Mr. Hohler said that he could not depart from the message he had been instructed to convey to the Portuguese Ambassador on this point. We would, however, consider his personal representations on the question of transport facilities. The Ambassador said that he would convey Mr. Hohler's message to his Government.

The Ambassador said, again speaking personally, that he had found much difficulty in explaining to his Government why such a simple request for help had taken so long for us to answer and had been hedged about with a number of detailed conditions. Mr. Hohler explained to him that there had been no reluctance at all to help the Portuguese Government in this matter, but that conditions in Britain differed somewhat from those in other countries and that our practice was to try to work with our friends to dispose of possible difficulties in advance.

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Grateful for your urgent comments.

Ends.

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