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8 April 1987
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Mr Anthony Layden
Hong Kong Department
Foreign & Commonwealth Office Whitehall SW1A 2AP
UNITED KINGDOM
Dear Anthony,
Most Portuguese residents of Macau are surprised that Dr Anibal Cavaco Silva's minority government survived for as long as it did. They believe that this was largely due to Dr Mario Soares (the former socialist supremo), the President of the Republic, and Dr Cavaco Silva (PSD), the Prime Minister, having both worked effectively at making their "cohabitation "a happier match than that of
Mitterrand/Chirac.
Fortunately for Macau, it would appear from the media that from hindsight most educated Portuguese regard the hasty fashion decolonization was effected as a squalid chapter in the country's history. Dr Soares is now seen as a man anxious to be remembered as a statesman. That being so, he is not likely to do anything to suggest that he is not completely divorced from the abject decolonization policy of 1974-75. Hence I am confident that whatever new government is formed Macau will not be allowed to become another Timor.
The most difficult task we face is to put together a constitutional structure that will best ensure the preservation of Hong Kong's present way of life. Fortunately we can rely on an efficient civil service whose characteristics will remain virtually intact. However, since major constitu- tional changes were in the past discouraged, public opinion on Hong Kong's future constitutional structure even within the constraints of the Joint Declaration is to put it no higher - not yet well crystalised.
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