Navy for Goncalves

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33941, 6 September 1975, Page 15

Navy for Goncalves

(A’.Z. Press Assn —Copyright) LISBON, September 5. ) The Portuguese Navy | is reported to have split from tlie Army by backing General Vasco Goncalves as chief of staff in a plan by the President to shift him from the post of Prime Minister to head of the Armed Forces. Navy officers and men, in an assembly on Wednesday, were understood to have supported Goncalves against those who accuse him of i trying to impose a CommunI Ist minority government on I the country. The Navy met under, its chief of staff (Vice Admiral Jose Pinheiro De Azevedo) who has been designated as Prime Minister and whose efforts to form a Cabinet are being blocked by the Goncalves controversy. An Air Force assembly meeting yesterday afternoon in nearby Sintra was expected to side with the Army, thus following General Mose Morais Da Silva, the Air Force chief of staff, who has said he would not accept a government of dictatorship. President Costa Gomes sought to resolve the issue ;

by calling a meeting later today of a general assembly of the armed forces in Tan” cox, 129 km north of Lisbon. The President, who will preside as the current chief ' of staff of the armed forces, ■ acted despite a threatened . boycott by the Army, which holds half the 240 assembly seats. The Army boycotl was a way of protesting the composition of the assembly which was largely handpicked several months ’ ago in favour of the outgoing Prime Minister. President Costa Gomes also announced that he would pay his first official visit to the Soviet Union, starting September 22. He presumably hopes that the crisis will have been surmounted by then and a new Cabinet organised. The Socialist leader (Dr Mario Soares) will give a first-hand report on latest developments in his country to a special meeting of West European Socialist leaders in London. The meeting, convened by the British Labour Prime Minister (Mr Harold Wilson) will examine what moral and economic aid could be given to the Portuguese Socialist Party, informed British sources said. Dr Soares, who is secre-tary-general of his country’s Socialist party, shortly before flying to London yester-

day told President Costs Gomes that the Socialist Party would only participate with the Communists in a government if the Communists’ representation was cut down to match the party’? support at the last election. This was’ just over 12 per cent. The main editorial in the Communist Party’s official weekly “Avante” has said that supporters of the 17-month-old revolution were now deeply split. The Communists said that the time had come for compromises and indicated that they were prepared to join a coalition with the Socialists and the Centre-Left. Popular Democrats. Dr Soares wants a series of guarantees that in practice would force the Communists out of key positions they have won since last year’s coup in the state machinery, regional administration, the trade unions and the press.