PORTUGAL IN REVOLUTION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 192, 23 November 1910, Page 3

PORTUGAL IN REVOLUTION

shell:x;; the palace. THE KlXii'S ESCAPE IX A MOTORCAR. GRAPHIC XAIIUATIYE. (Wellington Times correspondent.) London, October 7. '•The d\nasty of the Uraganzas, maleficent and wiitul disturbers of the social peace, have been for ever prescribed from Portugal." In .these words the revolutionary party in Portugal proclaimed this week the downfall of King Manuel and the establishment of the Portuguese Republic. It all happened with dramatic suddenness. London was quite unprepared for the news, but considering how little news one ever sees in th.e London papers regarding a Hairs in Portugal that was not surprising. What is remarkable, however. about the situation, is the fact that 110 one in Lisbon,, not even the guiding Council of Republicans, expected a revolution <at the actual moment when it occurred. j It was, in fact, premature, but none the less it has secured such a measure' of success and may make Republican institutions in Portugal permanent. j The Daily Mail was the first paper in London to get the startling news ot the revolution and the flight of King Manoel, but the first connected account of the happenings in Lisbon is published to-day by the Daily Chronicle from the pen of Mr. M. If. Donchoe, the wellknown Australian war correspondent, who was in Lisbon on behalf of the Chronicle \vhoi>i the devolution [broke out. Mr. Donohoe, finding the wires cut and the trains stopped, escaped to Vigo; on ai British ship, and sent from there to his paper a graphic story of the revolution. a condensed account of which follows:

HOW IT STARTED. The spark that ignited t-iie powder magazine of revolution was the murder of Doctor Miguel Bombarda. He was a medioal officer attached to the Lisbon Asylum for the insane, and a well-known specialist in mental diseases. Dr. Bombarda was also known as a fanatical Republican and an active propagandist. Lieutenant Santos left Lisbon when he was released from the asylum, and went to Paris.

He returned on 'Monday last, and immediately sought out I)r. Bombarda at the asylum, A hrated altercation took place between the two men, which culminated in the lieutenant drawing a revolver and fafcallv wounding Dr. Bombarda.

I'y people of con! intellect and calm judgment the murder would properly have been regarded as the act of a demented man.

Rut to the extreme revolutionaries the assassination of Dr. Bombarda, a Republican, was a political crime, or, at any rate, might lie made to appear such.

They used this weapon to incite the people of Lisbon against the Monarchy. The dastardly murder bv a well-known Royalist of one of the Republicans was an act, they said, calling for immediate and summary vengeance.

'•'DOWN WITH MONARCHY." The Republican .newspaper, 0 Seculo, on Monday evening isued an inflammatory placard, which was widely Circulated stigmatising ,the murder as a political assassination, and calling upon the people to rise and put an end to the monarchial regime which permitted such foul deeds.

Groups of excited workmen gathered round the placards, wh'C-h were eagerly read. They began to shout "Down with the Monarchy,'' and the cry was rapidly taken up and repeated.

In a group outside the Seeulo'office were two priests, who, when they read the placard, expressed views anything but complimentary to the Republicans and to the dead man—Dr. Bombarda. This roused the aiiipr of the crowd, The priests were hustled, and when they tried to escape were stoned. Tliev were pursued by a mob as far as the office of the Nationalist newspaper Portugal, where they took refuge. This was the beginning of the riot. When the police tried to re=tore order, they were attacked by the Republicans, who were armed with revolvers.

Many shots were fired, and in this preliminary skirmish several persons were injured, and some of the police were wounded.

The rioters were eventually dispersed! in this part of the city. But they after-1 wards went in a body to the barracks in the Rua Castelho. j TROOPS MUTINY. ' ' Here was quartered the Ist Battery of Artillery. They were known as ardenb partisans of the Republican party.. In response to the clamorous demands of the populace, the disaffected artillerymen mutinied. .

They made the only two officers who were in barracks prisoners, and signalised their act o? rebellion by trampling oil the Royalist flag, which .was afterwards torn to pieces by the mob.. They marched out of the barracks carrying as their standard the Republican flag, and taking with them four of the field guns which. belonged to the battery. | Before leaving thair quarters the mu- j { tineers broke into tae armoury and took, j possession of all the rifles and ammuni-j j tion they found there. j j These were distributed among their j civilian sympathisers, some of whom ( were then placed as guard over the bar- ( racks. , The rebel artillerymen took up a com- ( manding position on the heights of the , park, Praca Marques Pombal, and pro- , ceeded to entrench themselves. They were supported by a considerable number of revolutionaries in the Avenue' da Liberdade. j The October fair was in full swing at this er.d of the Avenue, which was lined j with showmen's booths and refreshment stalls. _ j The revolting soldiers took possession' of these, and proceeded to convert them > into barricades. The showmen assisted! them in this work, perhaps for fear ot; what would happen to them if they j showed any objection to this use of their, property. I Word of the rising was quickly communicated by telegraph and telephone < to the other d'wifl'ected centres in the i city, and immediately afterwards, in ac-j cordanee with a prearranged plan, the j telegraphic and railwav communication j between th" capital n<l the outer world I wn- cut. off. The i iot hid become a re-j volution. 1 Next, the Kith Infantrv 'Regiment,' hearing of the revolt of Hie Artilleny followed their example, and after shooting two of their officers joined the artillerymen at the Park. FUTILE POLICE. Th." police were called out for service, but tiiev lacked a directing head.. For immediately the {!hief of Police heard to what proportions the rising had grown he telegraphed to the Minister of War that lie was suffering from a sudden attack of fever and had been compelled to take to his bed. As ahawing liovv wholly unprepared were the authorities for the outbreak, of, the. Goyern^p.t.^i;e

I der of Lisbon and many of the officers ' of the garrison were absent at Cascades, a. fashionable seaside r. sort about forty minutes awav by rail from Lisbon. King Manoel himself was entertaining Marshal Remus de l'ouseca. the Presi-dent-Elect of the Brazilian Republic. • The young King and his entourage were utterly ignorant of the storm about to break over their devoted heads. Premature as the rising was, once the die was cast, the Republican plans revealed a creditable amount of organisation. Tll the Royalist ranks, 011 the : other hand, all was di'sorder. It would I be 110 exaggeration to call it chaos. Xo-1 body seemed capable or willing to assume command. . . 'j SAILORS OX* CAB-1-lORSES. : j The insurgents were joined on Tuesday .morning by naval officers in uniform, ' who came ashore from the warships in ' J port at the lirst sign of revolt. Eager ' to take part ill the fight, they conimandeered the cab-horses in the street, and , mounting these extraordinary chargers '.they broke through the Royalist lilies j and joined the rebels, and took over the ' command from the sergeants, who had ' hitherto been leading the fighting. I At sunrise the sailors in the marine ! barracks' hoisted the Republican flag and I sent out detachments to snipe the police ! who were guarding the approaches to 1 the palace. Simultaneous!v three war- , ships lying in the bay hoisted the Re-j | publican colors of red" and green. Tlih J , crews manned ship and cheered while the guns, fired a salute. The people ashore flocked to, the water-side, waved the revolutionary flag and returned the cheers of the insurgent sailors. The flagship Dom Pedro continued to flv the Roval Standard. As two of the rebel cruisers drew clear of the encumbering shipping and presented their hulls to the broadside guns S , of the Dom Pedro there was intense excitement. ( The spectators on the nuayside held their breath . Would the Royalist ship ] f.r» on the rebels? j The two Republican cruisers passed i the flagship under easy steam at a micro of about Sf)o yards. Tliev nu*le an ( admirable target., but the guns of the r j Dom Pedro were silent. ' c I This mark of passive svmnathy was , rot lost on the crews of the rebel vessels, who lined the sides and eheer°d tlie : .r comrade vociferously. Then the two ships flying the Republican flag fore and aft. passed down the hnv to begin the wor'- of destruction. Thev owned fire . on Hie palace at a range of about 1000 1 yards. I

THE K IXC'S FLIGHT.

The rest of the story 13 soon told. King Manoel, showing plenty of courage, was 'for remaining in the bombarded palace at all costs, but ultimately he yielded to the persuasion of his friends and sought safety in (light. He quitted the palace in an automobile. A cheery smile was on his lips, and he was smokin«r a cigarette as he entered the ca.r.

The Republican cruisers afterwards shelled the arsenal and the adjacent streets, until the defenders hauled down the Royal flag and hoisted the Republican colors. Fierce artillery fighting went on in the streets throughout Tuesday, but everywhere .the Republicans gained the upper hand. At eight o'clock next morning the Republic was' proclaimed, and the House of Braganza "for ever prescribed from Portugal."

THE DAWX OF REPUBLICANISM. During the last half-century the political history of Portugal may be briefly epitomised as a continuous progress from bad to worse, says the Times.' The names of politician after politician rise and fade like so many danger-signals along the path the nation" travelled, though with far less useful results. Budgets, with their inevitable deficit, provided the excuse for continual experiments i» taxation. Popular protests, local uprisings, and military revolts are unceasing, finding sufficient cause in the general discomfort, though ostensibly directed against Clericalism, over-taxa-tion or what not. Premiers and Finance Ministers follow each other in I •rapid succession. Through it all twoj potents are increasingly in evidence—the professional politician' is reducing the' matter to an exact trade and the Repub-j lican is everywhere gaining in strength i as the shortcomings of his opponents ebcome more flagrant. The overthrow of the Brazilian Empire in 1880 was an event which had' considerable effect in increasing the strength of Portuguese Republicanism. The strength of this movement showed itself notably during the dispute with Great Britain concerning East Africa. The "Rotatavist" -system of party government was bv this time firmly established by the Monarchists. Put at its baldest the Regeneradores, or Conservatives, and the Progressistas, or Liberals, had come to a friendly agreement, where Portuguese politics were reduced to the level of the sale-room "knockout." The spoils' of office were divided according to a regular system whereby the party out of power receives certain Governmental or semi-Governmental appointments._ In due course the official holders, resign, making room for their opponents— a division of labour and profits so regularly observed as to have gained .for the "ring" its nickname of I "Rotatavists" on the analogy of the ro- ; tation of crops. THE DEATH OF DON CARLOS.

It was in the hope of ending this st!atc if affairs that in 190U Joao Franco cs■ablished his Dictatorship. Corruption ad by that time readied such a pitch n every Government Department thai ts uprooting by ordinary measures was 'learly impossible. The Cortes was ac:ordingly dissolved and no date given lor i General Election. As was of course in >vitable, so pronounced a step aroused ilie utmost indignation from all sides, rhe placeman, threatened with the losn )f his lucrative profession; the Consti;utionalist, fearful of an autocracy; the Republican, dreading lest reform of existing abuses might nullify his propaganda, united in attacking the King and liis iconoclastic Minister. The result was only what was to be feared; on February 1, 1908, the world was shocked by the news that King Carlos and his elder son had been murdered while driving through the streets of .the capital. If anything could lnrve impressed upon the imagination of the professional politician the necessity of putting his house > in order, such a tragedy must have done so. Yet during the troubled reign <>t the young King Manoel the change has been for the worse. The Regicide entailed the downfall of the Directorship, and no successor has been found to assume Senhor Fnanco's task of cleansing the Augean stables. Within two years and a half five Ministers have followed each other into profitable oblivion, the legislative result of their united energies being exactly nil. While it may be doubted whether the ltation at la.rge cares much about political reform, the corruption of professional politics being freely condoned, save by a few, the Republicans have certainly benefited by Mie blunders of their enemies. Perhaps through the lack of opportunity, they hare not gained for themselves the same , reputation of venality, and, although hampered by the lack of a constructive policy, have evinced both faith and j energy. For some time past the Government has suspected that in Lisbon and other towns large hidden stores ot ' ammunition, and bombs .existed—-

tliis belief lias now been made abundantly clear. What the future may bold in istorc, alike for the House of liraganza and for Portugal. it is impossible' to guess at sui'li a juncture.