The Press SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1966. Macao—Another Goa ?

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31239, 10 December 1966, Page 14

The Press SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1966. Macao—Another Goa ?

It is ironical that Portugal, militarily the least effective of all the European Powers when the Second World War began, retains today nearly all its prewar colonial possessions. The other empires of the 1930 s have crumbled away; but of Portugal’s “ overseas provinces ” only Goa has gone, taken over by an Indian force in 1961—after having been Portuguese since 1505—and incorporated in the Indian Union. Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea, sizeable African territories, are still governed firmly from Lisbon, all native unrest rigorously suppressed. Timor was apparently thought of insufficient importance when Dr. Sukarno was empire-building from Djakarta. Macao, an enclave at the mouth of the Canton river, has only recently attracted Chinese attention, although it came into Portuguese hands in 1557.

Current Chinese complaints of the mistreatment of Chinese residents in Macao may be meant to stimulate the remittance of foreign currencies to China. The Portuguese would be powerless to prevent a take-over should Mao Tse-tung decide to “ liberate ” the tiny territory and attach it to mainland China. Macao is only about six square miles; and, although its boundaries have never been defined by agreement, Portugal governs under a treaty concluded with China in December, 1887. The colony extracts dollars from tourists through its gambling dens and houses of ill repute. Its trade —said to consist, on the export side, of joss sticks, firecrackers, and crabs—is largely in the hands of Chinese merchants, who have protested against repressive government measures and brutal suppression by the police of demonstrations. Mao Tse-tung, in need of something to ease domestic tensions, might welcome a diversion in Macao. The posting of gunboats carrying Chinese troops only a few hundred yards from Macao’s inner harbour may be no more than a gesture. It might presage action. Provocation, real or merely invented, would summarily end Portuguese authority on the peninsula. The population of Macao, including visitors, is about 300,000. Fewer than 10,000 are Portuguese and nearly all the permanent residents are Chinese. Peking on this occasion, as in the past, could base a “liberation” plea on racial grounds; and charges of official hostility to Chinese nationals might be justified by reference to the recent disorders. The Portuguese administration clearly must step very warily to avoid giving Peking any further excuse to interfere. Forty miles away, in Hong Kong, developments in Macao will be causing apprehension; for the British colony is no more defensible than Macao.