THE NEW REPUBLIC.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1231, 13 September 1911, Page 5

THE NEW REPUBLIC.

ARMED FORCE ON THE FRONTIER. A DELAYED ATTACK. By Toleirraph-Presß Association-Copyright Lisbon, September 11. Four thousand Republicans, with twenty field and mountain guns,. are awaiting tho Monarchists on the frontier, who are estimated to number five thousand, with forty guns, mostly maxims. Two aeroplanes are constantly flying over tho Republican camp at Chavez. Tho delay in tho attack is attributed to the Monarchists awaiting the arrival of half-million sterling from England. RECOGNITION BY THE POWERS. (Roc. September 12, 9.35 p.m.) Lisbon, September 12. Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Spain have recognised the Republic of Portugal. THE' DANGER IN PORTUGAL. There can be little doubt that the.Portuguese Government has been thoroughly frightened. Along the whole Poitueucst frontier, but especially in tne Norih, from Valenca to Braganca troops are drawn up for the (lefenco of fte Republic. The Treasury is empty, the Goyeniniont is beset with inlands for money, and each of is mw plans entails a large expenditure; it would not, therefore,Vw undertaken the constable expense of transporting, feeding, and paying the Reservists without some very urgent reason. It knows that it is of the utmost consequence that a Monarchist force, however small, should not enter Portugal, especially in the provinces ot Minh£ Traz-os-Montes, and Beira Baixa The people in Portugal have been taught to follow, never to initiate, a politacal event, and the mere presence of a Monarchist force would make many, one may well sav the majority, of the peasant* abandv their present passive adherence to the Republic as an accomplished fact. "The Republic is," they say, therefore we are Republicans"; but on the first sign of the Republic possibly ceasing to be they would turn willingly towards the side of tradition. They might not welcome the Monarchists as deliverers, but they would, nevertheless, feel more comfortable and secure under the old, as tho more natural, order. For wlu e the legislators of Lisbon legislate with their, eyes turned towards' France and other foreign nations, the. people, especially in tho North, remain profoundly religious and loyal—remain, in fact, Portuguese. Tho rumour* and alarms which now render the roads of Northern Portuga even niore deserted than is their wont do not make the people love the present regime. The Portuguese nation is very docile in appearance, but can be extraordinarly tenacious of what it has at -heart. It was characteristic that, during the sixty years of Spanish rule (1580-1640), while tho people outwardly submitted, there were very many in Portugal who still looked for the return of their King—Sebastian, "the Desired"—who had perished in Africa, but of whose death no definite tidings had ever come.