UNHAPPY PORTUGAL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 70, 21 March 1908, Page 9

UNHAPPY PORTUGAL.

The details of the terrible tragedy at Lisbon have already reached you by cable. Since Sunday last the Press censor has been at work in Lisbon, and very little news has reached the outer world. It is still impossible to say who prompted the assassins, or whether it was on their own initiative that these desperate men faced certain death in order to put an end to the reign of King Carlos. Portuguese opinion is divided as to whether they were Constitutionalists or Anarchists. It is plainly quite impossible for the outsider to form any decided opinion as to which of the conflicting theories is right; but the tragecy, itself, and the subsequent flight of the | Dictator and the reversal of his decrees I have thrown a flood of light upon the ! rights.and wrongs of the much-debated < dictatorship, which is said to have pre- I cipitated the climax. There were two opposing views put forward in the press regarding King Carlos and his attitude towards his people. On the one hand we are told that he was determined to put an end to the corruption prevailing ' in the public services and in both political parties, and accordingly gave Signor Franco dictatorial power—in other words "a free hand* , —to sweep away abuses and restore order and security to the troubled realm. In this view of the late King you are to figure him as an earnest "*"mer, deeply concerned for the welfare of his country. But another view described King Carlos as extravagant, luxurious, heedless and not too scrupulous. While the country was groaning under a heavy burden of taxation, ami the finances were in dire contusion, the King had been for years re- [■ ceiving heavy advances in excess of the i Civil List. He had granted the monopoly I of the tobacco trade of Portusal to a ' private concern—his enemies say he received a bribe of £75.000 for doing so— with the result that the poor had to pay 7/ a pound instead of 1/. as formerly, for their tobacco. This did not increase his popularity. Then the Dictator, . Franco, who was going to do such a lot j in the way of reform, adopted the dan- ' gerous plan of appealing to force. He over-rode the Constitution, suspended Parliamentary government, suppressed newspapers, shut up municipal councils, J and imprisoned or transported without any form of trial hundreds of people suspected of opposing big autocracy. King Carlos identified himself completely with the acts of his Dictator, and allowed the Constitutioa to remain in suspense from May last until Jus death

at the hands of the assassins. His opponents will say that he never meant to restore the Parliament, or that at best it would be reconstituted into a mock Parliament, like the new Russian Duma. The point can never be answered. The King is dead. The future rests with his successor. Portugal lias been in a shocking state socially and politically for years past. I Its population is the "most illiterate in { Europe; seventy-five per cent of the people are unable to read or write. Xat- ' urally, they are densely ignorant ani almost wholly in the power of their priests and their politicians. The latter have divided the spoils of office amongst themselves and piled up the national debt in the most unscrupulous and reckless fashion. The election returns were "engineered."' so that when one party had reached the limit of what the educated class would stand they resigned, and the other party would take their place, and continue ithe game of beggar-my-neighbour. One of the privileges of the party in power was to pay hish salaries for sinecure posts and grant trading monopolies to private firms. This last was perhaps the worst feature of public life, leading as it did to the corruption of the governing party and heavy taxes on the necessaries of life. Year after year Portugal has found herself j faced with a heavy deficit, and successive I Premiers have only tinkered at reform. I The continuance of Franco's dictatorship ! seems but to have added fuel to the ! flames.