THE PORTUGUESE CRISIS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 65, 31 October 1911, Page 3

THE PORTUGUESE CRISIS.

THE MONARCH IST LEA.I )ER

SOUL OF THE REVOLT

Half an Englishman

The crowds of banished Monarchists congregated on the frontier constituted no great danger to the Republic (said a writer in the ‘‘Manchester Guardian” recently) until Captain Couccrio also crossed the frontier. Captain Conceiro is a man of about IG. His mother was English ; he himself speaks English perfectly; and ills admirers profess to discover something peculiarly British in his military capacity, his energy, coolness, patience, and resource. His record is certainly good. During a long period of service in Africa, at first as a soldier, afterwards as a colonial Governor, ho displayed considerable military capacity. When King Manuel fell Conceiro was the only Royalist ofliccr who seriously incommoded tho Revolutionists, and but for two tilings lie might perhaps have suppressed tho insurrection. Those two things were—first, the incapacity or treachery of his superior officers; and, secondly, the flight of the King. Tho latter circumstance caused Conceiro so far to forget his respect for royalty as to employ with regard to King Manuel language so vigorous, and at tiie same time so condemnatory, that so far no newsBcr in Portugal or elsewhere has tho courage to print it. Kis Sense cf Honour. Immediately after tho revolution Conceiro left tiro army. He could not associate with officers who had broken their oath of loyalty and soldiers who had mutinied and murdered their superiors. The Republicans were very anxious to have this able and highspirited officer on their side, and offered him an important and highlypaid post, but be refused all these offers, though that refusal reduced him for a time to a position of a teacher of. English in an educational establishment at Lisbon. Meanwhile there were forming on the frontier and in Portugal monarchial secret societies. Agents of those societies lost no time in approaching Conceiro, and they at last gained his adhesion on the conditions already given—namely, that the Portuguese people should bo freely consulted as to the form of Government which they preferred, and that in tho event of the counter-revolution being succssful they should have that form of Government and no other. Conceiro’s departure from Portugal was marked by the almost Quixotic sense of honour which had always distinguished him. He first of all approached the President of Ihe liepublic, who received him affably, and proposed that a poll of the people should bo taken as to the *Ol m of Government which Portugal \>anrcd. Naturally enough, the President refused, whereupon Com tiro notified the Government that he was going to leave the country in order to do ids utmost to bring about their overthrow. He issued this notification 2-1 hours before his departure in order that the military authorities should, if so minded, have an opportunity of arresting him. He even published his address and disdained to conceal liimsdf. The Government confined itself, however, to striking his name out of the army list. He ielt the Country openly, without any attempt being made to molest him either by the police or by the various scent .societies which established the Republic, and which are still to some extent the power behind the Presidential chair.

‘‘A Portuguese Gordon.”

Since the revolution Conceiro has shown himself to he a strange and unusual mixt :re cf the idealist and the man of action—a sort of Portuguese Gordon. Ho is incorruptible; money and power have evidently no attractions for him. He does not want to restore King Manuel to bis throne, but ho wants to overthrow the small Republican clique, which has, bo assorts, established in Portugal a despotism worse than that of ttie Israganzas. Having established a temporary military Government, Ooucciro proposes to hold a- plebiscite in order to ascertain exactly what kind of Government it is that tho Portuguese pimple want. If they declare unmistakably for a republic, not like tho present one, but a republic in which the Catholics and the extreme Conservatives will be represented as well as tii advanced Radicals. If they declare for Horn Miguel, tho Dictator will at once bring that Pretender. If they want Dom Manuel, Dom Manuel will again he king.

Such arc the dreams of Conceiro. As a matter of fact, however, a successful counter-revolution would almost inevitably restore Dom Manuel. Ninety per cent of tho plotters are in favour of him, and even in the train of Conceiro there arc many adroit wire-pullers who would probably bring King Manuel back as soon as Oporto fell, and have him proclaimed by the, army. Chief among these wire-pullers is Senhor Chagas, formerly editor, of the ‘ Oorroio da Manila,” and now known among the conspirators as chief of the civil seclion of the Royalist movement.