PORTUGAL AND THE ALLIES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 17, 15 October 1943, Page 4

PORTUGAL AND THE ALLIES

The importance of the new development in the Atlantic i esulting from Portugal’s consent to the use of the Azores Islands by the Allies is fully explained in the news comments accompanying the official announcement by Mr. Churchill in the House of Commons. It may be wondered why so valuable a gain as this must be to Allied strategy in tlie war at sea had not been placed within reach at an earlier stage the depredations of enemy submarines on merchant shipping had reached disturbing proportions. The position was no doubt determined by the state of the general war situation at that stage. With the fate of Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and finally of France prominently in mind, the Portuguese. Government in all probability realized that the best service that could be rendered to the Allies would be to remain strictly neutral, and to take no action that -would offer the enemy a pretext for violating Portugal’s neutrality. Had Portugal been attacked at that stage of the war the Allies would have been unable to render effective assistance. In these circumstances it might well have happened that the Germans would have occupied the Portuguese coastal territories as they did in France, and at the same time seized the country’s overseas territories, including the Azores. The result would have been that the odds against the Allies -would have been still more heavily weighted. In short, the risks involved, both to Portugal and the Allies, were too great. That the Portuguese Government is now prepared to take the risk of offending the enemy is a significant recognition on its part of the changed aspect, in favour of the Allies, of the general war situation. The concession now made is one of the advantages reaped from the recent successes over the enemy, and an indication of the impression these /have made upon other countries not hitherto involved in the war. The Allies have gained on the merits of their cause and achievements an advantage in sea strategy that the enemy could probably only have gained at heavy cost and a serious augmentation of commitments. Whether the step taken by Portugal will lead to further developments in her relationships with the Axis Powers remains to be seen. That the Azores concession will prompt enemy repercussions need hardly be doubted. There is a suggestion in reports of some strain between Portugal and Japan in connexion with the Portuguese section of the East Indies island of Timor. But on all sides events in the war are reaching the stage when the enemy, both in the East and in the West, is being forced to defend his gains to the utmost of his capacity and resources, and is therefore not likely to be in a position to risk more trouble than lie is now desperately striving to cope with.