PORTUGUESE REVOLUTION.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 303, 21 December 1921, Page 5

PORTUGUESE REVOLUTION.

A SIMULTANEOUS OUTBREAK. FROM NORTH TO SOUTH. LISBON ISOLATED. (By Cable.—Press Associatiou.—Copj-rigbt.) LONDON, December 20. A revolution has broken out in Portugal. A. simultaneous signal was given in all the towns and seaports. All communications arc suspended. Troops and artillery fully occupied Lisbon. Furious cannonading is proceeding on the Tagus. There have been heavy casualties, and the hospitals are filled with dead and dying. News of tho Portuguese revolution ha? arrived in Paris from. Spain. Communication with Lisbon has been impossible since Friday. The Portuguese Legation professes to ignore the report, but refugees entering Spain at many frontier posts make it clear that a grave upheaval is progressing. A dispatch from Madrid states that when Senior Leal formed his Cabinet on (Saturday he and his Ministers were immediately challenged by an armed mob of soldiers and civilians. Simultaneously the naval and shore artillery opened a terrific fire. The position is such that even the Spanish authorities a*? censoring telegrams. —(A. and N.Z. Cable.) Many revolutions and coups have occurred in Portugal since the Republic was established, eleven years ago. On October 1 this year an abortive attempt was made to overthrow the Government. Seven months ago a bloodless coup overthrew the Government of Senhor Machado, which had given promise of stability and efficiency. Since then there have been three other Ministries I and one other revolution which broke out on October 20, when a militarist junta with Colonel Coelho at the head, concentrated a force of SOOO cavalry and infantry, with machine-guns, in the Edward VII, Park at Lisbon. They had also secured the adherence of the cruiser Vasco Aα Gama. Three shots from the cruiser in the morning were tiie signal I for the coup. The Prime Minister since | August (Senhor Granjo) was dragged i from tho house of Senhor Leal (Finance Minister) to the naval arsenal, where he was shot, and Senhor Leal was wounded. Three other Ministers of the Government, which had promptly resigned, were hunted down and shot. The junta declare that the assassinations were committed by an irresponsible mob. The President of the Republic (Senhor Almeida) wee forced to accept a Government of the leaders of the plot, with Colonel Coelho as Prime Minister. The junta claimed to he advanced democratic and "anti-waste," but not min-h faith was put in its professions. Kx-King Manoel is in Paris, and hie party does not appear to have had any hand in the plot.