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6. I asked Ramos whether he had made any progress in getting into a position to influence the draft of the Basic Law for Macau. He said he was in regular contact with drafters but had little impression of the recent meetings so far. From what he knew it was encouraging that some of the Macanese drafters were taking a more focussed and practical attitude to the problems. It would be necessary to develop such thinking and the stature of local personalities if any of Macau's identity was to survive. For the moment the locals tended to urge the Portuguese to stand up to China, but Ramos noticed that whenever they themselves came face to face with a Chinese cadre their ingrained response was to attempt to ingratiate themselves. He remained of the view that the Macaense community would depart en masse, principally to Australia and Canada rather than to Portugal. Some of the local Chinese businessmen would doubtless stay, but the disappearance of the Portuguese and the Macaense would rid Macau of much of its individuality.
7.
Taking up this theme I asked Ramos whether they were making any progress in entrenching an indigenous Civil Service. Ramos said that ideas were in hand for boosting its prestige. They were, for example, planning to institute equivalents of Hong Kong's General Duties Branch and Security Branch. At the moment the coordination and liaison function carried out in Hong Kong by General Duties Branch was his responsibility. He contacted policy secretaries and for important matters spoke directly to Melancia on the telephone. The Head of the Police at the moment was responsible for most security functions and he took his orders direct from Lisbon, though of course he also consulted with the Governor closely. Ramos was, however, pessimistic that any reform would result in an effective Civil Service. Referring to Hong Kong he said that basically he believed Macau's fate would be sealed in 1997 and by that stage there would probably not be a functioning Civil Service. Even though there would be 2 years to go, he suspected that it would be hard to persuade Macaense or Portuguese to stay to the bitter end. Those Portuguese who did want to seek their fortune in Macau would probably move to the private sector. Even now it was difficult to persuade lawyers, accountants or other professionals to leave Lisbon since they would be better paid there. The Portuguese had made some efforts to interest local Chinese in courses in Portuguese law at the University of East Asia or in Lisbon, but the fact was that people who took these courses tended to prefer not to return once they had achieved their qualifications. The Portuguese had faced the same problem in their African colonies and it had partially been solved by students attending Universities in Cuba and East Berlin, which he hardly thought would be an appropriate solution When I asked him what the result of all this would be in terms of ensuring continuity, he smiled and said disarmingly "That's not our problem". I asked whether he though this might result
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