THE OTHER SIDE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 111, 3 February 1908, Page 7

THE OTHER SIDE.

INDICTMENT OF THE DESPOTS,

KING'S ALLOWANCE. . , ■ INERADICABLE OFFICE-SEEKERS. ! A Lisbon correspondent, writing on hovenn ier 28. infers that the financial policy of. the lespotism itself is not spotless. Ho sayßi "As is well known, Senhor Franco lost no time in making a cle&n sweep through tho 'Augean stable' of Parliamentary corruption, J join;; away with a vast number of scandalous j sinecures. Unfortunately, lie was soon faced,! by tho problem of finding, positions'for hi3j own friends, who felt that for their support< of moasuros so drastic somo substantial re-s . turn should bo given. ;Ho ljas thus been compelled to fill similar offices with theso \ men, and so the economy previously effected has been greatly diminished. . 1 Royal Debts. . I • "The most- remarkable of the Premier's i v acts has been the treatment of the monetary \ advances made to King Carlos, which were f the chief bono of contention of the Opposi- \ tioii. . To putmatters clearly, Kinjj owed tho Government something . like 800" contos of reis, (£180,000), which the ltopub-. lican party were demanding should bo refunded to the State. Senhor Franco, by an adroit mbve, arranged that His Majesty should nominally transfer to tho his private yacht, the Amelia,; together with/ the free -.use of various buildings previously ■ rented from him by the Government, and) thus oxtiuguished the King's indebtedness at' one stroke.' Nor is this all. for His Majesty s\ income of £200 a day (£73,000. per annum),) having long been found to bo insufficient to \. meet (lie Koyal expenses, was increased by, Senhor Franco to £350 jior day, which means I a considerable extra annual increase to comol out of the Stato revenues, and it is easy to ] imagine that this step lias with-J. 'biit exciting loud protests from tho cntircv country. • -.- 1 ■ Depnssion. _ , 1 ■ "No new means 'of increasing the revenues ) have been found, and, consequently, it is not difficult to .understand that the financial Situ- • ation.has" goilo from had to''worse. Portu-j gueso foreign stocks '-within the last twelve months have dropped from 70 to 61, a fall or nine points, and the exchange, which forr.l merly was practically at. per, has dropped to ■ tho. extent that .oue ; pound sterling commands a premium of 2s.— The result-on-commerce lias been .disastrous, and thcro . have been many failures throughout the country. The'banks.refuse to discount any, trade bills. 1 ' , : , -