UNHAPPY PORTUGAL.

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 October 1910, Page 6

UNHAPPY PORTUGAL.

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THE REVOLUTION. FROM MONARCHY TO REPUBLIC. SEVERE FIGHTING RECORDED. . [per press association—.copyright.] LISBON, Odt, 6. Though an immediate revolutionary rising was not anticipated at the time, for several days prior to the rising Lisbon Was pervaded with disquieting events. On Friday and Saturday last, owing to serious strike demonstrations, there was much disquiet prevailing in the city. During this time there were violent strikes in connection with several of the trade associations.

The cork workers were particularly active, and they seized the South Sea railway station. For several hours they held the station, threatening to break the lines and cut the telegraph. There were also other demonstrations by. the strikers who gathered in front of the Government offices, butjess significance was attached to these, owing to the success of the celebrations on the 29th of September in Lisbon. At these there were 100,000 present. 'The Army on that occason greeted King Manuel with great cordiality. It is also reported that the murder of Bombarda recently had the effect of precipitating the trouble. While he was dying a large crowd of demonstrators at the Place Domperdo denounced the clergy and King Manuel. 'iiie events immediately prior to the rising gave no strong indication of its imminence. The King gave a banquet to Senor Fonesca, the President of Brazil, at the Palace on Monday. Then, at two'o'clock in the morning, the revolution broke out.

It transpires that the revolutionaries -.von the Navy over to their side owing to a breach of faith in regard to some sailors; who were punished ior an outbreak aboard tho iron-clad 'Vasco do Gianni,'' although they had been promised a pardon. THE COMMENCEMENT. LONDON, October 6. Renter's Lisbon correspondent telegraphs that the despatches sent by the military attaches of the Spanish Embassy at Lisbon, who motored to Feuntes Denoro, and thence telegraphed to the Premier, show how the insurrection was begun. They state that a force of seven thousand armed peasants entered Lisbon on Monday. They were joined by two regiments—one of artillerie and one of infantry. Men from the cruisers "Adamastor," and "Saorofall" and the Alcantara Naval Barracks also assisted in the rising. The insurgents concentrated at the Rotunda Unenida, where there was a large fair in progress. They turned the theatres and tents into a military camp. Lisbon was then awakened by twen-ty-one hurried cannon shots. ' The population poured into the streets, where they found bugles sounding an assembly. There was a g.-m-ral iry ; 'To arms!" The police were quickly mobilised and thrown upon tho revolutionists, but were repulsed with hand grenades. Then the troops were called out. The response, however, was not vigorous. Some of 'the soldiers sided with the revolutionists. LOYALISTS v. REPCBLICANS. The Sixteenth Regiment of Infantry split. The monarchist and republican factions had a fierce conflict, which resulted in favour of the republicans. Tlie colonel and a number of the officers and men were killed. The rest then joined tho victors. The artillery regiment, ignoring their oHicers, attacked the barracks, under the command of sergeants. The insurgents seized the arsenal and distributed the arms to the populace. They erected barricades and sent detachments to blow up the bridges and cut the telegraphs. Tho loyalists meanwhile held Domperdo Square, in the centre of the capital, and remained waiting for tho arrival of the loyal provincial troops. Throughout Tuesday night the insurgents, with artillery and rifles, kept up an incessant fire. When this lessened down, the Duke of Oporto headed a charge of mounted artillery against them, but the insurgents repulsed the loyalists.

During Tuesday the troops of various provincial garrisons joined the loyalists, almost equalising the forces. At eleven o'clock on Tuesday night the insurgents made a detour, in an endeavour to capture the barracks. In the meantime the loyal Municipal Guards, who wore in command of the centre of the city, continued fighting in darkness, the electric light having failed. KING MANUEL. LISBON, October 6. While the fighting and bombarding was proceeding on Tuesday evening, the Spanish Ambasador had an audience with King Manuel, going to s*oe him .at the Necessidades Palace. -When the Ambassador offered his services, King Manuel, who was \ery calm, replied:—"Just now, I want lew persons near me." BERLIN, October 6. A wireless message has just been received here stating that about nighttall on Tuesday, the Brazilian warship "San Paulo" sent a steam pinnace to a landing stage at the Royal Palace. After hesitating, King Manuel and his mother agreed »to flight. They then passed through lines of loyalists to the landing stage, boarded the pinnace, and were taken out to the warship. THE REPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT. LISBON, October 6. The latest development in Lisbon has been the formation of a provisional Republican Government. The personnel of the Government is as follows : » President —Senor Theophile Braga. Minister of Justice —Doctor Alphonse Costa ; Minister of Foreign Affairs—Colonel Maohadda ;' Minister of Finance—Senhor Tellesj Minister of Public Works—Senhor Antonio Gomes; Minister of War—Colonel Areto : Minister of the Interior—Senhor Almedi; Minister of Marine—Senhor Amargo Gomez. MADRID, October 6. The Madrid Radical Club was illumined, and the Marsellaise was sung, in celebration of the Portuguese revolution. The police then evicted the members, who paraded the streets, but were again'dispersed. WILL THE KING FIGHT? LONDON, October 6. Writing in the "Times" in. correspondent who has just returned from Portugal ,declares that. King Manuel, if given the opportunity, willn ot give in easily. If he escapes from his entourage, says the writer, he will show resolution. He ought to make a fight against (,he Republicans, who only dominate Lisbon. The corespondent adds a civil war, with the capital against the country, is the probable outcome of the present situation: The Daily Express Berlin correspondent says that the main cause of the rebellion has been King Manuel's fascination for a French actress. King Manuel was indiscreet in not. concealing' his infatuation, and presented her witbr jewellery of great value*. The' head of ,the newly-proclaimed Government, Senhor Braga, is a wellknown savant. He belongs to the. most visionary revolutionary school. He is an authority, on Portuguese folk lore. The United States gunboats* at Ge"noa may be ordered to proceed to Lisfeeni

FROM MONARCHY TO REPUBLIC. Received this day at 9 a. Hi. LISBON, October 6. A brief bombardment of the Palace resulted in the lowering of the Royal Standard. When the insurgents stormed the Palace, General Gorjao, commanding the Royalists, committed suicide. The warships bombardment did considerable damage to buildings around Praca and the dome and tower of the Church. They attacked the Palace which was demolished. A number of spectators were killed in the lower town. According to all accounts many were killed and wounded in the fighting. LOYALISTS SURRENDER. At eight o’clock on Wednesday morning the remaining Loyalists surrendered and returned to the harracks, the populace applauding and cheering ‘‘Long live the Republic, hoisting' Republican flags. The warships greeted the hoisting with salvoes of artillery. Ihe revolutionists raided buildings, flying the red flag, treading down the emblems of Monarchy, singing the Marsellaise. The Red Cross Fire Brigade removed the dead to the morgue and the wounded to the hospitals. THE NEW GOVERNOR. Eusebio Leao, the new Civil Governor of Lisbon, in a speech from the balcony of the Town Hall, entrusted the policing to the citizens and said they must respect all public, preso and private property and let all, whoever thev may be know that the Republic is” generous and magnanimous. The British Ministers in full uniform went to the Town Hall and interviewed the Republicans. Received this day at 8.40 a.m. UNRELIABLE ESTIMATES. LONDON, October 6.

The estimates'of the deaths in connection with the fighting at Lisbon are untrustworthy. Nothing is given above one hundred and the wounded are rather more. KING MANUEL'S POSITION. THE REPUBLICAN MOVEMENT. A TASK FOR MATCH-MAKERS. "A ROTTEN KINGSHIP." The truth of the Portuguese political conditions (wrote a correspondent of the "Daily News" a few months ago) is that the population is divided into two classes —a small one, verbose and more or less educated, which consists of the members of the House of Lords and the Chamber of Deputies: and a large one —the people, almost illiterate, and completely ignorant outside a certain mean knowledge of local advantages and disadvantages. A more invidious but no less accurate division would be : about 300 pluckers and over 5,000,000 plucked. The House of Lords (Camara does Pares) consists of fifty-two hereditary members, thirteen prelates and ninety life members, appointed by the King; the Lower House, "elected" by the people, numbers 138 members. It wants no especial genius in political manipulation to show how such a combination can be worked from above or from below.

At present all the power is in the lower stratum, which fact is likely to prove cataclysmal, as it did a few years ago when'" the flood of discontent swept Don Carlos from his meagre holding on Portuguese history. It is to be hoped —everyone here hopes —that, should King Manuel decide to abdicate, the cession of the leadership of the State to the inchoate Republican party will be an act of peace* but the King will be tragically misadvised if he is foolish enough to talk about "in f-arvour of." The favour is nil the other way. Unconditional surrender will mean for him a pension which may or may not be paid ; conditions will mean death. This sounds rough, but there are moments when it is the publicist's duty to bo brutally accurate. As for the policy of no-abdication, which is by far the most likely to be adopted, its value in statecraft is on the knees of many and various gods, whose counsel will probably have Horace's ironic "Virtus post nummos" as its frame. But, incidentally, it is playing with fire ; a fact which is recognised by so many people that the Court is in a terrible quandary about the marriage of the Rex Fidelissimus. It is essential that a Queen should be found for him soon, and, for the matter of that, just so soon as may be. But where is the Catholic Princess —and there are not so many of them —whose parents are prepared to gamble her safety, even against so nice a prize as a crown, when that crown may prove more uneasy even than the head that wins to wear it?

There have been l'epeated rumours — outside Portugal—that another bit of religious jugglery might result in there being a second English "Queen Victoria" on a Peninsular throne ; but surely not? Such things can be carried through once in a generation, and it wants a particularly important fairy godfather to make them possible. People forgave "King Edward a good deal of his convention-breaking—in-deed, applauded him for much of it; but many years must pass before his son will have established to himself fo high a Sympathetic co-efficient of "sic. volo hoc jubeo." And in such 'prentice time I fear that Dom Manuel's youth would be lost, and with it the tenure of his all too narrow throne.

A difficult factor for the matchmakers is that the bride must bring a considei*able marriage portion to the union. This "puts out of the running" a Bavarian Princess who, I understand, has been suggested, and not a little favoured ; it, indeed, leads one into a blind alley of speculation, out of which one can only double by proposing that the Bourbon families subscribe, as it were, to the gilding of another crown for one of their girl folk. In this consideration I must point out that a really rich Princess might save the situation for the throne: . But this "might" is fine drawn; so much so, indeed, that ' I would not accept the responsibility of its most remotely pleasant interpretation. For I believe that the Portuguese Republic is already margined against the next chapter of European history, and in letters of blood, if the inevitable cannot be more reasonably set forth in lawyer's ink. useless to talk as, unfortunately, many purblind people here do, of foreign intercession to maintain a rotten kingship. The reactionaries of Portugal must understand that such illusions are most completely illusions, and that the voice of -the people, if not the voice of their historic god, is, at any rate, the voice of a god whose' phrasing has but one sense and but one constitution —Portugal for the Portuguese. A COUNTRY IN CHAOS. PORTUGUESE REPUBLICANS. THE DRIFT TOWARDS REVOLU- • ■) .;. TION: T King Manuel 11. occupied the throne of Portugal when it was rendered Vacant by the assassination of his father, King Carlos, and his elder brother, Prince Luiz Philippa, on February 1, 1908. His seat has never been firm. The country is permeated with republican ideals, and an ignorant populace has placed upon the shoMlders of the monarch the blame for eommereial and industrial treu-

bles. The administration, under a fairly liberal constitution, has been corrupt and inefficient. A coalition Ministry took office after the murder of King Carlos, and resigned owing to internal divisions at the end of IUOB. Since that time the country, viewed politically, has been in a turmoil. Successive Minis-! ters failed to rostorc order or gain I pubic confidence. In May of last year a Cabinet was formed of nonparty men who were not members of the Cortes, but this experiment failed. In June last, after several prominent men had declined to accept office, on any terms, a Ministry was formed by Senor Teixeira Souza, who seems to have met attacks from every side. The Lower House was dissolved, and when the last mail left London, Portugal was in the throes of an election campaign. The ft)ol ling was to take place oil August 23, but the result has not been reported in the cablegrams.

"The result of the elections," wrote , a correspondent on August 16, "is , waited with extreme interest. The activity of the Republicans is extraordinary. Yesterday alone they held no less than fifty-three meetings in Lisbon, Oporto, Coimbra, Figueira and other towns, and for the reminder of the week eighty four meetings have organised. 'ihey will dispute every constituency, and many are certain of a majority, it being the general opinion that the number of Repubicans returned this election will be great. Many of the Republican candidates are officers of the Army and Navy. The chief Repubican candidate in Lisbon, for example, is Vice-Admiral Candida Reis, a man of great influence and social standing. The'Government is gravely preoccupied with this alarming Republican movement throughout Portugal, and especially at the adherence to the movement of Navy and Army officers. It is considered that conflicts are inevitable if the Government, according to the usual practice, endeavours to tamper with free voting. A firearms factory at Braga has received a secret order for 250 revolvers, which, it is assumed, are destined for the Republicans. The most stringent military precautions have been taken to maintain order."

THE PORTUGUESE PRETENDER

DOM MIGUEL OF BRAGANZA

There is a "Pretender" to the throne of Portugal in the person of Dom Miguel do Braganza. Until a year or two ago he had been content to live in relative obscurity in Austria, where his ties of kinsmanship with the Hapsburgs have caused him to be treated as a relative of the Imperial family—almost as one of its members. In fact,, he has received the colonelcy of a crack hussar regiment and the order of the Golden Fleece, precisely as if he had been an Austrian archduke. Born in Austria in 1853 and educated 'in that country, he had been looked upon up till now as an Austrian in all but name and title, and was moreover believed ,to be so thoroughly contented with his lot that something akin to amazement was created in Vienna by his public announcement that he had never renounced his claims to the throne of Portugal, and that when the hour arrived he would be ready and delighted to take possession.

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