THE RESTLESS STREETS OF LISBON.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 10762, 9 May 1911, Page 6

THE RESTLESS STREETS OF LISBON.

DANGER FROM WITHIN. (Daily Mail Correspondent.) Nearly'-half-, a : year-lias- now elapsed ; since..the three eanii oil-shotsburstingi the;j)lacicl stillness on the' sleepirig_ port of Lisbon, ushered in the fall of the H()use of Braganza. The plot to/.overthrow the monarchy, organised -beforehand in everjf particular.;siifceeded Iwith an ease that,W,as ialmost-i disquieting. Bfefoto the last- poor victim of the - day-; of; resolution. ihad -been, " identified;, in ■■ the squalid ..little morgue.-of Lisbon 'th,e country had resumed its noimal.life.-: ;. Like a rotten fruit the monarchy fell, worm-eaten. within and without., The Ministers abandoned the throne because; .having unwittingly i' caused its dowrffall, presumably, theyi, kiiew that on - them the retribution wou.ld <justly,.,descend.;; The was not there to fill its. customary'role and gather,jabout its Eing to: defend his ilirorie because, for now, one .by one the grand;, old names', or j Portugaltlniye vanished frjojji; the Court. And so tlie Casa Briigaiiza fell, and its bead went into exile by . night, escorted by exactly eleven men. of that Army ot which, he was] ? : , Public opinion, always impressed by oiitwardv-signs, assumed total collapse of., the.-mon archy before . the farst determined, assault of the people that the: Provisional ; Go,veivnjjient of, jtlie. Republic had a clear road before '••it: to- i wards the - consolidation of what had been won. Chances of a .restoration Were.,discpun.tedAas nilon; the strength of the. reports of iunanimous enthusiasm ■ wllerewiiilv the new order had been, acclaimed from one. .eijd of :l?ortugUT to the. other. Yet gradually ...a vague uneasiness has begun to manifest j itself , abroa.d.. .The serene persistence of the Government in proclaiming, ,in„,face > of facts which prove the contrary,: that everything is normal and the se'dulbus attempts to suppress unpleasant truths.in the Press have not tended to allay this anxiety. Surely, foreigners argued, the only danger 1 threatening, si-.newly proclaimed Republic .can come from the adherents of the old regime, and from 110 one else; is Europe therefore to be confronted with a restoration against the Republic with the horrors of bloodshed attendant on all counter-revolutions?

That is the question which all visitors to Portugal are putting. The reply, save from the Monarchists, whose lips are sealed with fear, is invariably a vigorous negative. Prosecution, expulsion, and .even assault .menace those who. too freely announce their loyalty to tlie vanished monarchy. Wellplanned raids, carried out by the allpowerful secret, society of the Carbonari, effectively drove the Monarchist Press out of Lisbon; the Republican authorities, stood by and; saw the mob .wrecking the Royalist newspaper offices in the capital without. lifting a finger. A line bf.brbten windows, a pile ..of splintered fragments-of chairs arid tables littering the street, remained to show how, the organisation that made the Portuguese Republic defended... its work. Such aristocrats as have stayed iu Portugal have either withdrawn to their country seats or live in deepest seclusion in tlieir great tile-fronted hotels 011 the hills above Lisbon'.

Even the staiinchest Monarchists, when they can be induced .to speak their minds, admit that a re-establish-ment of the House of Bniganz;< on the throne is an extremely remote possibility. . There is deep: sympathy with the ex-King in the terrible catastrophes which have darkened liis young years, but even Royalists are inclined to think that he let his chance .slip when he had it. "Three-quarters .of my life," Donji Mano.el said to an. .acquaintance, of mine, "would I give could I really belli my country!'.'. Had. lie but had the force .to translate tliat spirit into deeds!. The restoration of - the '-'Pretender, Dom Miguel, is also difficult to conceive of owing to the question of the succession, his heirs not being regarded as suitable to ascend, the throne.

The anxiety abroad inspired by the present situation in ..Portugal is by no means unfounded, tin rest is in the air. One has only to walk through the streets of Lisbon, bathed,in the glittering sunshine of the early spring, to realise that a ferment,is in progress. The eafes are filled nightly with crowds of malcontents who talk politics for hours and. .hours —on the cafe till it closes at 2 a.m., and afterwards in the bright, moonlight of the streets. The first enthusiasm of victory lias vanished. Vanished, too, the stirring scenes which marked cafe life immediately after the revolution, when, as I have seen, the ' iip.pear.anße of one .of :the heroes of October stli was the signal for an elemental outburst, men standing 011 chairs and tables crying "Viva Republfca !" Gone, too, the impromptu processions, headed by torehbearers and guitar-players twanging out the new Republican hymn, filling the streets by night with bustle and noise. Now men foregather in cafe and open place, .talking, talking, in undertones, with : uneasy glances to right and left.. Murmuring knots surround the despatch-boards outside the newspaper offices j where is displayed the latest. news of the, strikes which have been .breaking out everywhere since the Republic came. Troops of workmen, miserably clad in ragged shirts and trousers,- with, broken - sandals, and wearing the characteristic Portuguese knitted fisher-cap, lounge in the suitshine outside the Ministries. They are the strikers aiid the out-of-works, who are bitterly disappointed to find that the golden age has not returned, with the advent of. the Rep.ublic. The blue arid white flag may have tfirned red and green, but meat and milk and bread are' all dearer..; 4 ,, 1

Many typical officers in mufti may be picked out in the groups of malcontents at ~the Cafe. Maxtinlio of an evening. One understands tlie reason of their presence among the dissatisfied when one sees during the afternoon promenade along the. fashionable Rua Aurea numbers of figures cutting a dash .a. .little ; awkwardly : ; in dazzlingly Officers'..tinifprms .befpre tlie black eyes of tlie: irihideris of liislion. These are the-officers newly promoted from, the ranks under Ministerial patronage, or igiven cpmmissiqps, in the Republican Guard's, which has taken the place of the-disbanded Municipal Guard,: practically the only heroes of the defence of the monarchy against' the revolution, of the vArmy, and Navy have either been granted-indefinite leave or have', left-the and all, these meiijithiis: ,thr_own idle, go to swell the ranks of the grumblers.

Discontent with the Government is far-reaching and profound. A good deal of bitter criticism was inevitable. ■£he'previously concerted plan of the revolution included a list of occupants bf the principal 'offices of State, so that rth<3;;new .Ministers,' ,self-appointed, are responsible Jttr themselves and their consciences alone' until.' tlie constituent Assembly has met. The Government has, of course, to meet the fierce hostility of 'the adherents of the pld regime, also severe criticism from those among their supporters. ,who think., their., devotion Jp the- Rcpuwiean cause' : deserves- a Goyernment position as a reward. Peaces cannot be found for all, and place-hunt-ing is as rife in the young Portuguese commonwealth as it is in all Republics. The members of the Provisional Government were fatally ;boun,d to distribute the offices in their gift among their relatives, friends, and supporters ; just, as fatally heart-burning was bound to.'follow among those who were passed ov.er. In this consideration s alone ' there is material for' half a- dozen iCabinet crises, but the Provisional Government has made tilings worse by a series ..of tactical errors. The Anti-Clerical campaign, the extravagant promises, made to the workmen, the delay in pronuflr gating the electoral law, whereby' the official recognition of tlie - Republic abroad has been further retarded, and last but not least the dangerous encouragement extended to the .terrorist element among the Republicans were all blunders which may rebound on . the, heads of their authors. The Portuguese Government is confronted .by an exceedingly difficult situation, but,,thp danger is not from without. It is from" within. ,»i