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MDTTAN 3598
22-DEC-1992 17:12
BRITISH TRADE COMMISSION
Peter Ricketts Esq Head of HKD
FCO
Dew Pato.
RESTRICTED
0203
41
British Trade Commission Hong Kong
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
22 December 1992
OFFICER
1992
&
NH 23/16
的
Mr Davies FED
?
2 М. П. M
Buste
ма
MACAU
で
1. On 19 December I was invited with my family to a birthday party in honour of Father Lancelot Rodrigues MBE, a larger than
The party life figure who was honoured earlier in the year. was an extraordinary affair, over one hundred seated on a sunny terrace before the Army Training School in Coloane Island looking out on a scene that could have been the Douro Valley. I sat next to the Governor and we had a long, relaxed talk about recent developments in Hong Kong and surrounding region. I took the opportunity to pass on warn regards from Hugh Arbuthnot in Lâsbon, from whom I had just received a Christmas letter: he was pleased and asked for these to be reciprocated.
2. Inevitably, he was keenly interested in developments between Hong Kong and China and he demonstrated strong support for the Governor and understanding of the politics in terms of Hong Kong and Western public opinion. He observed that the Chinese authorities were puzzled by the phenomenon of a political Governor and yearned for an age when private deals could be struck by the national authorities. He said how much he had enjoyed the Governor's visit to Macau and how well they had got on personally: he was anxious to keep abreast of developments on Hong Kong and was grateful for our efforts.
3.
In response to my question he said that Hong Kong had not been mentioned to him in any of Macau's recent contacts with the Chinese. I asked how Portugal orchestrated negotiations with Peking. He said this was largely his job. Hie authorities were pretty relaxed and there were no big public issues.
Their There was no simple pattern to the exchanges. JLG was not necessarily the best line of communication, since
RESTRICTED
22-DEC-1992
17:13
BRITISH TRADE COMMISSION
F.03
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