http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3059-2479
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ABSTRACT
Focusing on the history of the wartime Macau Delegation of the Portuguese Red Cross (1943–46), this article aims to shed light on interactions between Macau and the occupied British colony of Hong Kong during the Second World War. It argues that the Macau Red Cross branch was a concrete example of Portuguese collaborative neutrality with the Allies, most particularly the British. In coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross, this local branch played an important role in humanitarian assistance to many victims of the war, particularly refugees and POW dependants, in Hong Kong and Shanghai when British authorities were unable to negotiate an exchange with Japan or provide direct assistance in those occupied cities.
The wartime Red Cross in Macau was a small-scale and temporary endeavour but, nevertheless, a multi-dimensional one: it was a local creation, a delegation integrated in a national and colonial context, an inter-imperial institution and part of a transnational organisation with global reach.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Mr Fabrizio Bensi, archivist at the ICRC Archives in Geneva, and Ms Luísa Nobre, responsible for the Historical Archives of the Portuguese Red Cross in Lisbon, for their kind help during my visits to those archives, as well as St Antony’s College, Oxford, for a Student Travel and Research Grant (Carr & Stahl Fund) that funded my research trip to Geneva. My doctoral project, in the context of which research for this article was undertaken, was funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT-Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) and by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. A version of this article was presented at the International Conference ‘Histories of the Red Cross Movement: Continuities and Change’ held at Flinders University, Adelaide, in September 2016. My trip to Australia was kindly supported by St Antony’s College Antonian Fund and by travel funds from my FCT studentship. I thank the conference organisers and participants for useful feedback, as well as the two anonymous reviewers of this article for their suggestions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Helena F. S. Lopes http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3059-2479
Notes
1 The most comprehensive single-author volume on the war in English is Mitter, China’s War with Japan.
2 For example, Cole, Propaganda, Censorship; O’Halpin, Spying on Ireland; Wylie, Britain, Switzerland.
3 This is a direct translation from the Portuguese term (delegação) but it means the same as ‘branch’ or ‘chapter’ in other Red Cross societies.
4 The only existing monographs on the history of the Portuguese Red Cross Society are official publications dating from the 1920s and the 1940s. Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa 1865 a 1925; A Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa.
5 For example, Rosas, O Salazarismo, 14.
6 Rosas, ‘Portuguese Neutrality’, 269.
7 Stone, ‘The Official British Attitude’, 743.
8 Fighting between Portuguese and German troops had been taking place in Angola and Mozambique since 1914. There is a growing number of works on the Portuguese participation in the First World War. A good overview in English that takes into account the imperial dimension is de Meneses, ‘The Portuguese Empire at War’.
9 Rosas, ‘Portuguese Neutrality’, 277–78.
10 Although neutrality was never broken, it is worth noting that in 1944, when negotiating an agreement to cede rights for an airbase in Santa Maria island in the Azores with the United States, the Portuguese government asked to participate in military operations to ‘recover’ Timor, ‘which would be equivalent to entering in the war against Japan’. Telo, A Neutralidade Portuguesa, 74, All translations are by the author of this article.
11 There are some similarities with the situation in Europe, where Germany protested to the Portuguese censorship commission about the negative treatment it was receiving from the press compared to Britain (Telo, A Neutralidade Portuguesa, 40).
12 For example, from August to October 1940 the Macau censorship commission forbade the publication of 102 articles in the local Chinese press for containing entries ‘offensive to Japan and the Japanese army’, 65 for ‘alarming the population or damaging neutrality’ and 38 for ‘other reasons’. Ministry of Colonies to Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 17 Jan. 1941, 2P, A48, M217, Arquivo Histórico Diplomático-Historical/Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Portugal (hereafter AHD).
13 Governor of Macau to Ministry of Colonies, 15 Jan. 1945, Arquivo Salazar, NE-10A2, cx. 768, Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo/National Archives, Portugal (hereafter ANTT).
14 Governor of Macau to Minister of Colonies, 10 Dec. 1941, Arquivo Salazar, UL-10A1, cx. 767, ANTT.
15 Telo, ‘Segunda Guerra Mundial’, 900.
16 Telo, A Neutralidade Portuguesa, 19.
17 It was first set up as the Portuguese Commission for Assistance to the Military Wounded and Sick in Times of War (Comissão Portuguesa de Socorros a Feridos e Doentes Militares em Tempos de Guerra) and was later, in 1887, replaced by the Portuguese Red Cross Society.
18 They represented Red Cross societies from Belgium, Brazil, Finland, France, French North Africa, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Thailand, the United States of America, Yugoslavia and the ICRC. Interestingly, there were no representatives of the Japanese and the Chinese Red Cross, although the Chinese minister in Lisbon asked to be given a list of countries with representatives to the Portuguese Red Cross. Chinese Minister in Lisbon to President of the Portuguese Red Cross, 10 April 1944, Legações Estrangeiras, China, Arquivo Histórico da Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa/Historical Archives of the Portuguese Red Cross Society (hereafter AHCVP).
19 One historian stated that Lisbon was ‘the key neutral European port during the war’. Crossland, Britain and the International Committee, 70.
20 Pimentel and Ninhos, Salazar, Portugal e o Holocausto.
21 See, for example, the reference in an American Red Cross publication: ‘The only method in which agreement has so far been reached for the transportation of relief supplies was by diplomatic exchange ships, which went from various United Nations ports to Lourenço Marques, in Portuguese East Africa, and there met the Japanese exchange ships’. ‘Relief to Prisoners of War in the Far East’, 4.
22 On the American-Japanese exchanges, see Corbett, Quiet Passages, 56–95; correspondence about the exchange involving the Portuguese Red Cross in CV/3213-3465, Proc. No 3322, AHCVP.
23 Hotta, Japan 1941, 283–84; Cuthbertson, Nobody Said Not to Go, 275–77.
24 Crossland, Britain and the International Committee, 89.
25 See, for example, a letter from Egle to the Geneva headquarters about the exchange of correspondence to ‘Chinese parties in Canton’ that had been sent from the Portuguese Red Cross in Lourenço Marques. ICRC Delegate in Shanghai to ICRC, 9? Dec. 1942, B G 017 07-015, International Committee of the Red Cross Archives (hereafter ICRC). Lourenço Marques hosted one of the largest Chinese communities in the Portuguese empire.
26 See, for example, an excerpt from the press release (Noticiário) no. 93 from 1943 entitled ‘Vai realizar-se na Índia Portuguese uma Troca de Civis Americanos e Japoneses’ (An exchange of American and Japanese civilians will take place in Portuguese India) that read: ‘The Lourenço Marques Delegation of the Portuguese Red Cross has striven for the best outcomes for the Nation’s prestige and the good of mankind resulting from this other great service which will be provided by Portugal to the World’, II Guerra, Serviço de Imprensa, 1941–44, AHCVP.
27 ‘Elementos estatísticos da acção da Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa durante a Guerra de 1939–1945’ (Statistical elements of the actions of the Portuguese Red Cross during the 1939–1945 War), CV/4742-4805, AHCVP.
28 For example, one of the first Portuguese Red Cross delegations was set up in Luanda, Angola’s capital, and it established blood-bank hospitals at several points in Mozambique in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa 1865 a 1925, 301–02; A Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa, 25. One of its presidents, General Joaquim José Machado, had been governor of Mozambique and another, Henrique José Monteiro Mendonça, had been a plantation owner in São Tomé and Príncipe.
29 Reeves, ‘The Red Cross Society’, 218.
30 For example, van Bergen, ‘On “War Task”’; van Bergen, ‘Medical Care as the Carrot’; Martínez, ‘Estado de necesidad’.
31 For example, Telo, Portugal na Segunda Guerra; Rosas, ‘Portuguese Neutrality’.
32 For example, Minutes of the Macau Delegation of the Portuguese Red Cross, 23 April 1922, Delegação de Macau, 1ª Pasta (1915–1974), AHCVP.
33 ‘History’, Macau Red Cross, https://www.redcross.org.mo/en/rc_history.htm.
34 See, for example, Teixeira, ‘Macau durante a Guerra’, 498.
35 For example, HKRS 170-1-359, Hong Kong Public Records Office (hereafter HKPRO).
36 CV/3563-3821, AHCVP.
37 For example, Crossland, Britain and the International Committee, 90–97; Totani, ‘The Prisoner of War’, 79–80; Edgar, ‘“The Necessary Boldness”’. For a negative assessment of Zindel’s work, which is contradicted by the archival sources seen for this article, see Auden, Charles R. Boxer, 214–15. A post-war report listing Zindel’s courageous actions noted that he had wanted to resign but, knowing that his replacement might not be permitted, he stayed on in the post. Article in The Hong Kong Sunday Herald reproduced in letter from ICRC Delegate in London to ICRC, 2 Nov. 1945, B G 017 07-073, ICRC.
38 Even before the appointment of Zindel to Hong Kong, Egle informed the ICRC that he had been told by Fritz Paravicini, the delegate in Tokyo, that ‘the Japanese Authorities look askance at any suggestions on our part to appoint other delegates or even sub-delegates of the International Red Cross Committee, and that the Japanese Authorities feel that the two existing delegates are sufficient to cover the Far East’. ICRC Delegate in Shanghai to ICRC, 16 May 1942. B G 017 07-012, ICRC.
39 Four Portuguese women worked at the ICRC main office in Shanghai: Miss H. da Costa was responsible for the civilian mail section, Portuguese correspondence, ‘attending partly to Japanese telephone calls’ and also spoke Chinese; Miss Marie Rozario worked at the section for enquiries and civilian mail; Miss Virginia M. Oliveira was an assistant in the civilian mail section; Miss L. Oliveira worked in handling parcel and mail for POWs in Shanghai. Two Portuguese, Mr Thomas Kabelitz and Mrs Lyna Ritter, worked for the Service to Civilian Internees at the ICRC Branch Office on Sichuan Rd. ICRC Shanghai Office, List of Staff, 28 Feb. 1943, B G 017 07-017, ICRC. The ICRC staff in Hong Kong included two Portuguese women, Miss Jacinta Castilho, who was receptionist and steno-typist in the General Office and, Miss Constance Mary Basto, who was typist and receptionist in the Relief Department. Particulars of Staff sent with letter from ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 6 April 1943, B G 017 07-061, ICRC. In November of the same year Miss Basto was listed as working for the General Office, Miss Angela Teresa Alves, a steno-typist, was working for the Purchasing Department and Miss Castilho was working and living at Rosary Hill. Particulars of Staff sent with letter from ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 23 Nov. 1943, B G 017 07-066, ICRC. Several dependants held key positions in the running of the Rosary Hill Red Cross Home and certain surnames also point to a probable Portuguese nationality or origin, such as that of the school headmistress, Miss Delminda L. Lopes. Report on the Rosary Hill Red Cross Home from ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 30 April 1944, B G 017 07-067, ICRC.
40 Egle explained to Geneva that ‘generally speaking the Japanese authorities don’t feel obliged to allow the International Red Cross Committee Delegates to perform their tasks … under these circumstances we often need a lot of tact and a great patience’. ICRC Delegate in Shanghai to the ICRC, 20 Jan. 1943, B G 017 07-017, ICRC. The most extreme treatment of Red Cross personnel was perhaps the execution in 1943 of the couple of Swiss missionaries who acted as unofficial delegates in Borneo. ‘60 Prison Camps Concealed’, The South China Morning Post, 23 Nov. 1945, sent with letter from ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 30 Nov. 1945. B G 017 07-071, ICRC.
41 Governor of Macau to Minister of Colonies, 12 Aug. 1942, 236, 1E, MU, GM, 1942, Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino/Overseas Historical Archives, Portugal (hereafter AHU).
42 President of the Macau Delegation of the Portuguese Red Cross to ICRC Delegate in Shanghai, 27 Feb.1943, D AO CHINE1 01-086, ICRC.
43 Crossland, Britain and the International Committee, 92.
44 For example, Directório de Macau 1937, 1, 3, 5; Anuário de Macau 1938, 22, 37–38; Anuário de Macau 1939, 3, 5, 9, 10, 12–19.
45 Portuguese Consul at Guangzhou to Portuguese Minister to China, 19 March 1940, 3P, A9, M135, AHD.
46 In addition to his professional contacts, Rodrigues also had international connections of a more personal nature. For example, his second wife, Neeltje Adriana van Woerkom, was Dutch.
47 Respectively, Fernando de Senna Fernandes Rodrigues, First Lieutenant of the Navy José Peixoto de Lima, Infantry Lieutenant Manuel Gedeão, Captain José Joaquim da Silva e Costa, Alberto Pacheco Jorge, João Correia Pais Assunção and retired Lieutenant Augusto Teixeira. Boletim Oficial 1943, 23; ‘Delegação da Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa’ (Portuguese Red Cross Delegation), A Voz de Macau, 29 Feb. 1943, 3.
48 See the balance sheets in CV/3513-3514, AHCVP.
49 When Gao died in Hong Kong in 1955, the president of the Macau Delegation Portuguese Red Cross conveyed his condolences to the family in name of the Portuguese Red Cross, noting how he had been a ‘distinguished member and benefactor’. Macau Delegation to Secretary General of the Portuguese Red Cross, 12 May 1955. Delegação de Macau, 1ª Pasta, 1915–1974, AHCVP.
50 President of the Macau Delegation to the Secretary General of the Portuguese Red Cross, 5 June 1943, CV/3513-3514, AHCVP.
51 Head of the Macau Civil Administration Services to President of the Macau Delegation, 12 March 1943, No P-18492, Cx. 350, Administração Civil, Arquivo de Macau/Archives of Macau (hereafter AM).
52 Hutchinson, Champions of Charity.
53 Watt, Saving Lives in Wartime China, 137–38.
54 For example, advertisement for a charitable billiards show in A Voz de Macau, 14 June 1943, 3; small report on a flower sale fundraising event in ‘Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa’ (Portuguese Red Cross), A Voz de Macau, 24 April 1944, 2. The latter event included the participation of several Chinese schools in the territory. ‘Festa da flor’ (Flower festival), A Voz de Macau, 28 June 1944, 4. Microfilm copies of this Macau periodical were read at the library of Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau (Macau Scientific and Cultural Centre) in Lisbon, an institution housed in a building that formerly belonged to the Portuguese Red Cross. ‘História do Edíficio’ (The building’s history), http://www.cccm.pt/page.php?conteudo=&tarefa=ver&id=34&item=Hist%F3ria%20do%20edif%EDcio.
55 ‘Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa’ (Portuguese Red Cross), A Voz de Macau, 13 Feb. 1944, 2; ‘Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa’ (Portuguese Red Cross), A Voz de Macau, 25, 26 April 1944, 2; ‘Henrique José Monteiro de Mendonça, 11° Presidente da Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa’ (Henrique José Monteiro de Mendonça, 11th President of the Portuguese Red Cross), A Voz de Macau, 9 May 1944, 2, 4; ‘Vice-Almirante Guilherme Ivens Ferraz, 12° Presidente da Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa’ (Vice Admiral Guilherme Ivens Ferraz, 12th President of the Portuguese Red Cross), A Voz de Macau, 10, 11 May 1944, 2.
56 An announcement in a local daily informed the readers that from then onwards the Macau delegation of the Portuguese Red Cross was ‘able to receive correspondence to be sent via plane to Europe, Australia, and the United States, via Chungking’. A Voz de Macau, 1 April 1944, 3.
57 ICRC Delegate in Shanghai to ICRC Delegate in Chongqing, 25 May 1943, B G 017 07-018, ICRC.
58 ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC Delegate in Yokohama for ICRC in Geneva, 21 June 1943. D AO CHINE1 01-024, ICRC; also B G 017 07-061, ICRC.
59 ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 29 Sept. 1945, B G 017 07-063, ICRC.
60 President of the Macau Delegation to ICRC Delegate in Shanghai, 10 May and 26 June 1944; Assistant Delegate of the ICRC in Shanghai to President of the Macau Delegation, 25 Sept. 1944, D AO CHINE1 01-086, ICRC.
61 On the failed negotiations for an exchange that lasted until 1945, see Fedorowich, ‘Doomed from the Outset?’; Ward, ‘The Asia-Pacific War’.
62 ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 28 April 1944. B G 017 07-065, ICRC.
63 ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC Tokyo Office for ICRC in Geneva, 19 Oct. 1944, B G 017 07-068, ICRC. However, later that same month he asked Geneva for assistance because the Hong Kong authorities had stipulated that ‘future Macau remittances to us must pass via Geneva/Tokyo’. ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC Tokyo Office for ICRC in Geneva, 24 Oct. 1944, B G 017 07-068, ICRC.
64 ‘Elementos estatísticos da acção da Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa durante a Guerra de 1939–1945’ (Statistical elements of the actions of the Portuguese Red Cross during the 1939–1945 War). CV/4742-4805, AHCVP.
65 This is vividly illustrated by J. G. Ballard’s memoir of childhood life in the Longhua Camp. Ballard, Empire of the Sun.
66 ICRC Delegate in Shanghai to President of the Macau Delegation, 24 Jan. 1944, D AO CHINE1 01-086, ICRC.
67 ICRC Delegate in Shanghai to President of the Macau Delegation, 12 July 1944, D AO CHINE1 01-086, ICRC,
68 For example, ‘Como socorrer os portugueses de Shanghai, vítimas da guerra?’ (How to help the Shanghai Portuguese, victims of war?), Renascimento, 23 March 1945, 6; ‘Portugueses! Centenas de Familias Portuguesas estão destruidas em Shanghai! Assinem, conforme a sua posse, a subscrição pública!’ (Portuguese! Hundreds of Portuguese families are destroyed in Shanghai! Sign the public subscription according to your means!), Renascimento, 29 March 1945, 6.
69 ‘Para os Portugueses de Xangai’ (To the Shanghai Portuguese), Renascimento, 26 June 1945, 4.
70 Among the very few studies published about the Portuguese community in Shanghai are Dias, ‘The Origins’;Dias, Diáspora Macaense; Silva, The Portuguese Community in Shanghai.
71 Reporting to Geneva at the end of 1942, Egle stated: ‘As to the Portuguese Community, although there is a considerable number of needy people, I do not consider this is our problem, and the duty to look after its nationals devolves on the Portuguese Consulate General at Shanghai.’ ICRC Delegate in Shanghai to ICRC, 3 Dec. 1942, B G 017 07-015, ICRC.
72 On the Macau Delegation of the Portuguese Red Cross activities linked to the Portuguese community in Shanghai during the 1950s see the correspondence in Delegação de Macau, 1ª Pasta, 1915–74, AHCVP.
73 Curiously, some of the original religious residents of the monastery also sought refuge in Macau, as attested by a letter from Father Alberto Santamaria, prior of the Community in Rosary Hill, to the colonial secretary asking for them to be repatriated to Hong Kong in November 1945. HKRS 170-1-377(3), HKPRO.
74 From ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 20 Sept. 1942, B G 017 07-060, ICRC.
75 At a time when the Spanish Dominican fathers who owned Rosary Hill were contesting the settlement payment for the building’s wartime use, Zindel reported that in the summer of 1944, ‘after the Allied landing on Saipan Island, the Japanese Military had included the “Rosary Hill” property in their fortified “Military-Zone”, and had requested its immediate evacuation’ and it was only due to his ‘personal efforts that we were finally permitted to remain at “Rosary Hill”, thereby protecting the property from complete looting and serious structural damage’, Zindel quoted in letter from ICRC to British Red Cross Society and Order of St. John of Jerusalem, 27 May 1947, B G 017 07-076, ICRC.
76 When the first transfer of dependants to the Rosary Hill Red Cross Home was completed on 27 October 1943, there were 667 people in total, with ‘about 300 children below 14 years, whilst the remainder consists of a preponderance of women’. ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 16 Nov. 1943, B G 017 07-063, ICRC. At the end of November the total number was 670. The Portuguese formed the second largest group (182) after the Eurasian (215). The residents had diverse origins, nationalities listed being: Eurasian, Portuguese, British by marriage, Chinese, Russian, Indian and West Indian, Czechoslovak, Iranian, French, Estonian, Swiss, Irish, American Chinese, Latvian, Colombian and stateless. ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 20 Dec. 1943, ibid. At the end of June 1944 the number of dependants living in the Red Cross Home was 503. ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 30 May 1944, B G 017 07-067, ICRC. By October the number was reduced to 477. ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 18 Oct. 1944, B G 017 07-068, ICRC. In late April 1945 there were 459 people in Rosary Hill. ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 25 May 1945, B G 017 07-063 ICRC. At the end of July there were only 142 people. ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 16 Aug. 1945, ibid.
77 A report stated that, of the almost 7,000 ‘Third Nationals’ in Hong Kong at the end of January 1943, 1,203 were Portuguese while 3,371 were Indian. Rapport de Mr. Zindel sur l’activité de la Délegation du CICR à Hong Kong au 28 février 1943 (Mr Zindel’s Report on the activities of the ICRC Delegation at Hong Kong on the 28th of February 1943), 8–9, B G 017 07-060, ICRC.
78 ‘Memorandum on Proposed Measures to ensure the future maintenance of the “Rosary Hill” Red Cross Home’, by the ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong, 30 April 1945, B G 017 07-063, ICRC.
79 For example, a list of departures from the Rosary Hill Red Cross Home during July 1944 counts among those who left for Macau a number of Portuguese, Eurasians and Indians. ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 1 Aug. 1944, B G 017 07-067, ICRC. A similar list pertaining to May 1945 also includes British by marriage, British by birth, Chinese, Latvians, a Russian emigrant and a stateless German. ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 29 May 1945, B G 017 07-068, ICRC.
80 To ICRC Tokyo Office from ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong for ICRC in Geneva, 2 Aug. 1944, D AO CHINE1 01-028, ICRC. Almost at the end of the war, in June 1945, the ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong was still trying to get more people to leave Rosary Hill as it was unable to meet the rising costs of living.
81 ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 20 June 1945, B G 017 07-063, ICRC.
82 Foreign Office to British Consul in Macau, 20 June 1945, FO 369/3267, The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA).
83 The British vice consul at Geneva informed the ICRC that ‘concerning transfer of dependants to Macao, we have now received from London a telegram stating that His Majesty’s Consul at Macao has authority to assume financial responsibility for these people’. British Vice Consul at Geneva to ICRC, 28 May 1945, B G 017 07-077, ICRC.
84 Foreign Office to Colonial Office, 16 Aug. 1945, FO 369/3267, TNA.
85 J. Cellérier (London Delegation of the ICRC Central Agency for POW) to Colonial Office, 5 July 1945; Colonial Office to Cellérier, 9 July 1945, FO 369/3267, TNA.
86 The 241 persons of 16 nationalities still living in Rosary Hill were transferred to the care of the British authorities in November. ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 29 Oct. 1945, B G 017 07-073, ICRC.
87 From ICRC Delegate in Hong Kong to ICRC, 7 Dec. 1945, B G 017 07-071, ICRC.
88 Governor of Macau to Minister of Colonies, 14 July 1945, Arquivo Salazar, NE-10A2, cx. 768, ANTT; Teixeira, ‘Rescaldo da Guerra’, 530–31; Teixeira, ‘The Bonnie and Clyde’, 5–7; Pinto, ‘Guerra em Paz’, 86. According to British sources the reasons had been ‘non-cooperation [with the enemy] and some financial issue’, FO 371/46199, TNA.
89 Mr Rodrigues was awarded three decorations by the Portuguese Red Cross, one for Dedication (Dedicação) in 1920, one for Merit (Mérito) in 1943 and a posthumous one for Praise (Louvor) in 1946.
90 President of the Portuguese Red Cross to Governor of Macau, 17 March 1949, stating that: ‘During the last war a delegation of the Portuguese Red Cross was created in that city that rendered very relevant services, notably concerning the material and moral assistance to refugees and other victims of the world conflagration.’ He then suggested the re-establishment of a Portuguese Red Cross delegation in Macau to serve as intermediary between the Lisbon headquarters and the Chinese Red Cross, which had made requests for help to attend to the ‘needy population of China’. Delegação de Macau, 1ª Pasta, 1915–74, AHCVP.