3.
(•)
He thought that it was quite clear that all the persons would be in transit but seemed to avoid aaying that they would without any exception go on to some other Portuguese territory.
(r) He was sure that the Portuguese authorities would accept financial responsibility for transporting the civilians to Hong Kong. And he supposed that they would use existing means of transport so far as possible. But his understanding of the request which he had been instructed to make was that it definitely covered co-oper»tion by the Hong Kong authorities in providing transport from Eneau to Hong Kong if this was necessary, as he believed it well might be, especially if evacuation had to be carried out under emergency conditions. (4)
The Ambarsaĉor told sa hat he would give us as soon as possible any further information which he could obtain from Lisbon in answer to our questiona ( the terma of which had been sarefully noted by Mr. Potier) wez had the impression that the Ambassador did not expect his overment to react with pleasure to our battery of questions. He had think, been hoping to be able to tell his government immediately that in principle we would be willing to provide facilities at Hong Kong for the evacuatioh of civilians from Macau. But he accepted that his government's request was one which requieed careful study, that it would have to be put to Ministers, and that the more information we had about what would be involved the better. He was pleased to hear that the authorities in Hong Kong were already studying præetical aspects of the problem, without prejudice to a decision on the principle, and that departmenta concerned here were treating the Portuguese request as a matter
of urgenes.B
(A.E. Tavidson)
Central Departaent
15 January. 1967
Co.
Commonwealth Office
Sir A. Galsworthy Er. Carter
Foreign Office
Sir J. Rennie
Ir. Hohler
#r. de la Hare Wr. 9olland.
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