PLOTS IN PORTUGAL

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 71, 26 March 1910, Page 13

PLOTS IN PORTUGAL

SECRET SOCIETIES AT WORK. The newspapers of Portugal devote considerable attention to the numerous arrest* and impnsonme,^.s of individuals accused of belonging to secret societies and plotting against the present regime. Three arrests have been occasioned by U\e recent discovery of a large robbery of cartridges from the Custom House, which were disposed of to eev«rs>l secret revolutionary associations. Startling development* followed. The perpetrator of the theft Nunes Pedro, fled to Bftdajoz, on the frontier, where ho Mackmailed the conspirators for money, threatening disclosures. He was thereupon enticed to Linbon and murdered in one of the suburbs (Caseaea), the mpsterkms manner of his death leading to an afßeial enquiry. The existence of a widespread organisation has been brougbt to light. The Portugal gives the following detail* : — The associations in question are similar to the "Carbonari" eetobliibed in Italy and France, having three principal grades of membership. Tnese groups wort in secret, and are not known personally to each other. Members of a group are styled "cousins," and prubaI turners are known as "pagsww." Tho seTTH-officra) organ "Dtario oe Noticing" states that the present Government (the strongest in power since the assaMrnatiou of King Carlos) is determined to get at tne bottom ol these myste^ious societies, which arc suspected of also being .-implicated in the death of tbe tate^Kiirg aad the. Gmsrn. Prjac» f ~ '