BRITISH OBSERVERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 51, 2 March 1937, Page 9

BRITISH OBSERVERS

PORTUGUESE FRONTIER

OFFICERS APPOINTED

. {British Official Wireless.) (Received March 2, 10.50 a.m.)

RUGBY, March 1,

The administrator of the British frontier observers in Portugal under the scheme which has been accepted by the International Non-intervention Committee as a substitute for the scheme of supervision rejected by the Portuguese Government will be Captain Malcolm Macdonald, British representative on the Straits Commission from August, 1924, until the entry into force of the Montreaux Convention. The Deputy Administrator will be Captain Smyth, also a retired Naval Officer, and former Secretary of the National Employment Agency for exservicemen.

A staff of 130 observers under Captain Macdonald will consist mainly of ex-naval officers and ex-Customs officials. It is expected that the first contingent will leave for Portugal in the next few days.

The Portuguese Government is cooperating with the British Government to make the work of the Administration efficient and smooth. Diplomatic immunity has been assured for the personnel. The organisation will have no executive authority, but the Portuguese Government has offered ample assurance that full facilities will be afforded to make the observations thoroughly efficient. Should the observers find anything to question as in contravention of the Non-interven-tion Agreement the procedure is that, through their Administrator or his deputy, they should inform the British Embassy in Lisbon. The matter •will then be dealt with through diplomatic channels.

Captain Malcolm Macdonald, D.5.0., 0.8. E., R.N., has had a distinguished career in the Navy. He entered the service in 1895, having received his naval training on H.M.S. Britannia. For services in the Persian Gulf in 1913 he received the General Service Medal. He was present at the Battle of Jutland in H.M.S. Dublin, and served in the Intelligence Department at the Admiralty in 1918. In 1919-20 he was a member of the Naval section at the Paris Peace Conference, and he was the British representative on the Straits Commission in Turkey. He jwas placed on the retired list in 1929.