NATION WITH GREAT TRADITIONS

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 307, 29 December 1939, Page 4

NATION WITH GREAT TRADITIONS

Portugal Weighs Heavily In The Balance of Power National Reform

ther® iat at crisis in Western civilisation the position of Portugal, a little nation with great traditions, comes into play. The interest taken in the coming visit of President Carmona to South Africa is an illustration of this circumstance. Small as she is, Portugal weighs heavily in the balance of power. Her privileged geographical situation on the south-western marches of Europe, her staunch individuality as a people and her possession of the third largest colonial empire in the world are factors that compel attention at all times. Today, recovering from a long lethargy, she is ready to exercise a stabilising influence in a world struggling to maintain the barriers against war. She can do this disinterestedly because she has no share in the rivalries with which Europe is becoming distraught, and because, having recently had need to put her house in order, she set about doing so by her own effort alone. Portugal asks nothing. Indeed, her recovery dates from the time when a League of Nations committee went to Lisbon to report on reform. Bather than submit to measures proposed by foreigners, to be carried out under foreign supervision, she set about restoring order herself. The remarkable manner in which national introspection produced the strength to do this is Portugal’s real triumph, for it placed the dictatorship on an unassailable basis. As a result Portugal is mistress of her destinies and owes no favours.

When the civil war broke out !n Spain, Portugal was already anxious about the turn events had been taking in that country, not because the republic was potentially hostile, but because of the possible repercussion at Lisbon of the disorder* of the popular Front Government was bringing. Lisbon dreaded even the remembrance of a demagogic system that had conspicuously failed after a trial of 16 years to bring the reforms trumpeted so vainly from the benches of San Bento. Portugal therefore readily espoused the cause of General Franco, and celebrates to-day his victory.

With the cessation of hostilities comes the chance of a durable peace in the peninsula If the complications can be avoided—and this is principally a matter for the Spanish and Portuguese dictators to decide. It is an excellent augury now that the same principles of social justice, based on an authoritarian regime, find favour at both Madrid and Lisbon, that the first act of the two countries has been to engage in a sisterly embrace by the treaty of peace and amity, signed in April. The treaty was immediately ratified, and undoubtedly responds to the intimate desires of the Iberian peoples. Peace, however, does not depend on their efforts alone. It may be disturbed by outside factors. The civil war has introduced new elements into the situation that are causing anxiety at Lisbon—the resurrection of an Imperial-minded power at Madrid and the attraction the Berlin-Rome “Axis" appears to exercise on Spain. In the past a strong Spain has spelt enmity towards Portugal. Tho frontier between the two countries is mainly artificial. La raya (the line), as it is called to this day by the local populations, leaves each country open. The old frontier fortresses are obsolete. The Spanish army is war trained and well equipped. Portugal will watch

Portugal needs peace to carry on the great work of national reform begun by Senhor Oliveira Salazar, but history has always found her ready, arms in hand, to defend resolutely her national interests. In the fourteenth century King John concluded an alliance with England “for all time” .that is stoutly withstanding the centuries, and is as popular to-day in Portugal as ever.

| eagerly to see if th® arms, particularly the aeroplane* and heavy artillery sent by Germany and Italy, ltiva Spain with the volunteers and fighting technicians. Lisbon, end Indeed til Portuguese towns and harbours, lie at the mercy of ®lr attack from Spain. But la raya equally Is a poor protection for Spain. Ther® are vast stretches of the frontier where an army provided with tanks could manoeuvre with ease, and the air menace is to a considerable axtant reciprocal. Friendship is therefore mutually advantageous. Tha facility with which the recant agreement was negotiated happily allays all immediate fears on tha first

count. Should, however, the efforts Berlin and Rome are making to prolong the Axis materialise (a plan far more positively conceived to encircle 1 France than the encirclement intrigues attributed to the Western demo- , cracies), then the cause of peace in tha peninsula might be jeopardiaed. In a new world war Portugal might conceivably remain neutral if Spain gave the example, but not otherwise. Don Salvador de Madariaga, acuta observer of international affairs, has remarked that the Hiapano-Portuguee* treaty is tantamount to a promise of neutrality given by Nationalist Spain to English-allied Portugal. It may be held, however, that the non-aggreaekm clause cuts both ways, and must squally be considered an assurance for Spain against attack up the valleys of tha Tagus and the Kouro, traditional channels of invasion from the west This assurance would be of the greatest value in the event of a war with France, for it would enable Spain to mass her entire army along tha Pyrenees for defensive or offensive action, leaving her most vulnerable land frontier undefended. Maintained, it would have the came inestimable value for Spain as the neutrality declared by Alfonso XIII. gave to France in 1914, which delivered the French army from preoccupations in the rear. Obviously, in the event of a war between England and France on one side, and Germany and Italy on tha

other, the Hispano-Portuguesa traaty would come under a severe strain. Th* test would be Spain's neutrality, for it is difficult to think of Portugal standing by with Spain attacking, or allowing to be attacked, from her territory Gibraltar or Freneh town* acroe* tha Pyrenees. There ia reason to belleva that Burgos fully realises this. Portugal and Spain can do much by action in common to secure stability in western Europe, securing thereby for themselves the opportunity for peaceful # development their peoples desire. War would be disastrous, for it would upset - in Portugal the far-reaching plans of ' Senhor Oliveira Salazar and complete * the impoverishment of Spain, caused by the civil war.

It would be easy to dwell on the prospects that co-operation between Spain and Portugal holds out For long the two nations have livtd back to back. Now the dynasti®* whoa® rivalry made so many war* and *0 many marriage* have disappeared! gone also are the antipathlaa of ideology that of rscent year* divided the Governments. In their place appears a common aspiration to reform and reorganise, coupled with a nascent dynamism arising from a coinciding revival of a patriotic spirit Respect foa each other's accomplishments in th® struggle against dark forces of disorder, bred of doctrines foreign both to Spanish and Portuguese temperament and traditions, should be a bond between the two proud nations. What an opportunity for a new tore# to arise in Christendom, and for two great Catholic peoples to demonstrata to Marxism and totalitarianism ■)**** that they can go one better in establishing a national prosperity baaed oa justice to all! It might be a lesson t£ the world at a turning point of civilisation.—London “Times.”