CONPIERNI
staff of the Consulate ware withdrawn from Kaose on the
next day since their personal safety was in jeopardy.
".
The situation in Eacao is still extremely turbulent and likely to remain so for some time to ocme. The Portu- guess authorities ere unable to control the situation and the colony is virtually in the hands of the leaders of various pro-Communist groups. In such sircumstances it would be very unwise to attempt to reopen the Consulate since this would only spark off more anti-British demonstra- tions and we could not be confident that the Fortuguese mathorities would be able to guarantee the personal safety
of our Consul.
From the work point of view, there are no strong reasons for having a Consulate in vigezo. To have no real need for information about conditions in Kaoso and we derive
little intelligence from there about China. une of the main
functions of the Consulate used to be to run a ĉermit office
for the Hong Kong Government dealing with applications from
Chinese in kasso to travel te Hong Kong. The Governor of
Hong Kong now reports that this Gffice is functioning adequately from Hong Kong and says that he sees no advantage in reopening the Permit office in Macao. The issue of visas and other consular duties can be undertaken from Hong Kong by the British Trade Commission and Immigration Department. We therefore consider that we should now take a decision in
principle to close the Cacao Consulate and, as from ↑ August, pay off the local staff. Te do not think that there will be any need to appoint an honorary Consul.
mo
7. There are, however, sound reasons why we should not
make a publie announcement about this for the time being nor take stope to terminate the lease of the buildings. It might well encourage the Communists in Macao to ranaack the Consular buildings, Those contain Home Office, kustralian and other forsiga "Suspect Indices" for visa work all
CUEFIDENTIAL
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