GENERAL AMNESTY URGED.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1981, 11 February 1914, Page 7

GENERAL AMNESTY URGED.

FOR PORTUGUESE POLITICAL : PRISONERS. . Bv Tcleirraph—Press AEsnciation—Oopyrteht j "Times"—Sydney "Sun" Special Cables., 5 London, February 9. i. An . influential meeting held at the i Westminster Palace Hotel urged the . Government to endeavour to secure, a , general -amnesty for all Portuguese , political prisoners. - The Duchess of' Bedford stated that . numbers had been imprisoned without , trial, ,or-.,been, shipped,to the..Azores. ; She"could. never forgot the hands stretched through the prison doors, the imploring eyes, and the accents of dell s^air.she.had, iieard from g the prisons'. The Duchess of Bedford Tecently wrote a letter to "The Times." Incidentally, she said:—After the proclamation of the Republic it was hoped on all sides that' the principles of justice and freedom would bo adopted as the basis of the new Government; it' is. now recognised that this hope has proved to he [ a complete illusion. Espionago, treachery, illegal arrest, and detention without ' trial have become tho established condi- ■ tions under which the government is carried on. and by these means the prisons are filled with protesting ■ Republicans no less than with suspected Royalists. : The Carbonarios (an, army of paid ~ spies who now rule , their masters) do ! their'deadly work with a thoroughness which terrorises the entire nonnlation. 1 All tho hideous facts; including tho miserable condition of the prisoners in •the' provinces as well as those in Lisbon, have now been fullv placed before the English public. While recognising that some alleviations have been introduced as .the result of indignant and continued protest, we claim that a ■ general amnesty to political offenders (on the lines of the Bill which before long will be again presented to the Portuguese Chamber l>y Don .Tofie d'Almei'la). accompanied by a complete reversal of the prevailing system of tyranny, will alone sstve to reconcile the British people to Hre' continuance of tho alliancjp with Portugal. •