BRITAIN AND PORTUGAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23092, 18 July 1938, Page 8

BRITAIN AND PORTUGAL

Signs are not wanting that Britain | and Portugal are resuming the close understanding that has almost invariably marked their relations in peace and war for roughly three centuries. The Spanish civil war subjected the old association to unusual strains. The Portuguese Prime Minister, Dr. Salazar, who exercises a mi Id dictatorship, found that the interests of his Government demanded support for General Franco's cause. His policy necessarily conflicted with the British noninterventionist attitude and tended to throw hirn into the extended arms of General Franco's overt supporters, Germany and Italy. In spite of the special circumstances, neither Dr. Salazar nor Portuguese public opinion was estranged from Britain and, now that the Spanish situation appears easier from Dr. Salazar's point of view, no time is being lost in strengthening the old ties. The advantage is mutual, for Portugal could scarcely stand alone in a landhungry world, and she holds several key positions that the Empire could never allow to pass into the hands of a strong Power. Lisbon itself has served as a British base in the past and, should Gibraltar become untenable, might resume the role. On the trade routes to South America and ; the Cape, moreover, Portugal possesses island sentinels of the highest strategic value, apart from the Azores on the North Atlantic winter air route. The position of Angola and Mozambique in relation to the South African Union needs no emphasis, and further east Portugal possesses posts at Goa in India, Macao at the mouth of the Canton River, and the eastern half of Timor Island, on the air route to Australia. To preserve Portugal's integrity must continue to be a major British interesit.