The Press SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 1962. Portugal

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29714, 6 January 1962, Page 10

The Press SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 1962. Portugal

After the loss of Goa no great prescience was needed to foresee the latest, unsuccessful revolt in Portugal. At 72 that durable dictator, Dr. Salazar, shows no sign of relaxing a 35-year-old grip on power; nor can there be serious dissent from the recently-publicised verdict of Captain Galvao —captor of the Santa Maria, •nd indisputably the most spectacular of Dr. Salazar’s enemies—that the dictatorship will not be ended by constitutional means. A dictator less inflexible than Dr. Salazar might have been prepared by his troubles overseas for capitulation to circumstances; in fact, the Salazar Government has been protected by its antagonists’ disunity, aggravated through fear that a political upheaval in Lisbon would be followed by a total collapse of the ancient, rickety Portuguese . empire. Already the war in Angola is sapping Portugal’s economy and draining its military resources. Defeat in the Indian enclaves was less important practically, although the ultimate effect must be to threaten Portuguese rule wherever it is precariously maintained. Time is still Dr. Salazar’s worst enemy. Politics in Portugal have yet to shed the dream-like quality from which Dr. Salazar and his closest associates alone appear immune. The dictator’s selfconfident realism is the main reason why his regime may continue for his lifqr time, but no longer. For decades domestic opposition was stilled not only by the authoritarian denial of political freedom, but rather by popular acceptance of Dr. Salazar’s claim that democratic processes could not secure administrative efficiency in Portugal. The

surprising support for General Delgado, the defeated opposition candidate, at the Presidential election in 1958 forewarned Dr. Salazar about the growth of discontent. Dr. Salazar’s immediate response was to change the constitution so that future Presidents could not be directly elected. World opinion has since been awakened—as well as amused—by the theatrical gestures of exiled Portuguese; but Dr. Salazar’s position at home has been buttressed through his critics’ inability to concert a common policy against him. For instance, Captain Galvao is reported to have broken with General Delgado because of the latter’s readiness to accept a Communist alliance. All Dr. Salazar’s European opponents, however, appear determined to reject the aid of African nationalism as a lever to upset the dictatorship. On November 12, through some extraordinary quirk of the dictator’s conscience, the Portuguese were permitted to elect a new National Assembly; but all the opposition candidates had either died or withdrawn beforehand. Only a quarter of Portuguese adults have the vote; polling was supervised (as usual) by the Army and the secret police; and nobody was allowed to check the figures that (according to the Government) gave the Government a resounding victory. No less unabashed than previously, the Government’s opponents have continued quiet preparations for the chang? that only Dr. Salazar’s death seems likely to bring. Meanwhile, all the apparatus of dictatorship will not prevent outbursts such as southern Portugal has just witnessed.