POLITICAL EXILES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 528, 11 May 1933, Page 3

POLITICAL EXILES

SHIP LOADS FROM BRAZIL . PORTUGAL BECOMES POPULAR AS HAVEN FOR REFUGEES. AWAITING CHANGE. Portugal is becoming a favourite h'aven for political exiles and refugees. Two shiploads of Brazilian deportees arrived at Lisbon after the St. Paulo r evolution- and settled down in the suburbs awaiting future political changes, states the Ohristian Seienee Monitor. Scor.es of Spanish' royalists, former Cahinet Ministers and other prominent persons have sought refuge at Lisbon since the proclamation of the Repuhlic. The latest arrivals are twenty-nine political prisoners, Spanish Monarchist exiles, who are awaiting trial in Morocco but fled from their desert prison. These ex-grandees, including Prince Alfonso of Bourbon, cousin of former King Alfonso, were found assembled on a lonely beach by fishermen of Cezimbra, a small fishing village on the Portuguese coast. There was no sign of a ship to .account for the appearance of the hand of gaunt and ragged men. The trials of the political prisoners deported at Villa Cisnero were to take place shortly at Madrid, and the men composing this group were those on whom the heaviest penalties, and in some cases capital sentence, would be pronounced. Adventurous Yoyage. Although refu&ing to reveal the identity of the little - sailing vessel that aided their fiight, they relate the story of their adventurous voyage. They crossed miles of sand and rocky desert to reach the- point where they knew a friendly ship awaited. During fourteen days they tossed on the ocean, keeping towards America for the first six days, far from any coast, and for three days they com- ; pletely lost their bearings. Water and provisions, although carefully rationed, became scarce, and they were almost despairing when they sighted the coast of Portugal and knew they had nothing to fear. Their first request in Lisbon was "telephone." They then busied themselves in informing a score of anxious families in Spain of their safe arrial. The Portuguese Government has placed no restrictions on the liberty of the Spanish refugees, many of whom intend to remain'in Portugal, while others are going to France, Hngland, and Germany. The exiles described the hardships at Villa Cisneros, Morocco. Their houses were tents and wooden huts, and their only furniture a straw mat : to sleep on and a blanket. But they , said they were most humiliated at bei ing sent to Morocco by the Spanish Government in a "cattleboat." The Spanish refugees made several P'olitical declarations on their arrival, | the gist of which was that "although ! they are all monarchists, their political ideals are of no account now that their country is threatened with anarchy." They afiirm that the rising last August in Seville, for which they were condemned, had no defined monarchist policy but was to try to put in power a strong Government which would re.store order and peace in Spain, under any regime the nation desired.