PORTUGAL’S TROUBLES.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 206, 15 August 1927, Page 6

PORTUGAL’S TROUBLES.

ATTEMPTED COUP D’ETAT. PLOTTERS ARRESTED. Lisbon, Aug. 13. Details of an attempted coup d’etat show that three officers forced their way into the Council Chambers and handed to the President a letter demanding the Government’s resignation. When the Minister for War refused to discuss the political situation, one of the trio, Lieut. Sarmento, used a revolver, wounding the Finance Minister’s secretary. Sarmento escaped in the confusion, but was arrested later. Further details of the attempted coup d'etat show that the two ringleaders, Captain Rodriques and Lieutenant Sarmento, forced a way into the Council chamber and demanded at the point of the revolver the resignation of the President in favour of Major Camara.

The President refused and pluckily flung himself although unarmed, against the attackers, who fired, wounding the secretary to the Minister of Finance, another bullet piercing the clothing of the Minister of Justice.

The officers regained the street and rejoined Major Camara at the barracks, where a decree was signed declaring Major Camara dictator. Meantime Carmona was most active and secured the arrest of the plotters.

The original cause of the trouble is believed to be the appointment of Calonel Passos Souza as Vice-Presi-dent of the Council. The city is calm but the Government thought it prudent to withdraw to an aerodrome on the outskirts. The War Minister states that he was remodelling the Ministry, but postponed the order to avoid the impression that the Government was acting under pressure.

This is the third attempted revolution this year and the eighteenth since the Monarchy was abolished.— (A. and N.Z.)