Carlos Henrique Basto was born on March 27th, 1890. He practised as an architect before the war.
During the occupation he became President of the Portuguese Residents Association, which both the Japanese and the British regarded as a centre of support for the Allies.
At some point in 1942 or 1943 Mr. Basto became an active member of the resistance; he used a code based on bridge problems to send messages to the British via Macau.
On October 28th, 1943 he was arrested at the Club Lusitano. In spite of the usual brutal interrogation methods, he admitted nothing – at his trial he called for a pack of cards and a bridge manual so he could demonstrate that the coded messages were in fact problems.
He was executed two days later – August 31st, 1944.
The Dark World's Fire: Hong Kong in World War Two 