Inter-imperial Humanitarianism: The Macau Delegation of the Portuguese Red Cross during the Second World War

Abstract

Focusing on the history of the wartime Macau Delegation of the Portuguese Red Cross (1943)(1944)(1945)(1946), 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.

Regulating Chinese education in colonial Macao: political struggle and the role of “the Chinese Educators' Association of Macau” (c. 1914–1949)

“…Implementing "neutral" colonial education policy and suppressing Chinese education The Sino-Japanese War broke the balance the establishment had achieved with the CEAM, first because the colonial Government took the initiative to manage Chinese education strictly. We can understand this by considering the need of the Portuguese to walk a tightrope in defining and maintaining a "neutral" position in East Asia (Lopes, 2018), and therefore to maintain close relations with the Japanese during the war, so that its forces would not occupy Macao. The Japanese army started their aggression toward China on July 7, 1937 and took over neighboring Canton in 1938 and Hong Kong in 1942 but never occupied Macao, due chiefly to Portuguese efforts, including by their colonial administration.…”