AN ANXIOUS NEUTRAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 February 1943, Page 4

AN ANXIOUS NEUTRAL

POSITION OF PORTUGAL RELATIONS WITH ALLIES & SPAIN. SOME FEARS OF GERMAN INVASION. (By Louis Shepard, in the “Christian Science Monitor.”) A few days after General Oscar Carmona replied to President Roose velt’s friendly message guaranteeing Portugal’s neutrality, the Portuguese Government protested against United Nations planes flying over Portuguese territory. The Cape of St. Vincent, at the southern tip of Portugal, juts into the Atlantic from the Iberian Peninsula and it is possible that United Nations aircraft have crossed this territory on their way to either Gibraltar or one of their new bases in North Africa. The Portuguese protest served to bring Portugal back to her position of absolute neutradity. But Portugal is really more concerned about the German attitude toward the Cape of St Vincent, only about 300 miles north of Casablanca, which can be of extreme importance to Germany. The land is level and presents excellent possibilities for the construction of airfields from which Rabat and Casablanca could be bombed easily. The same, of course, could be said of the established airports of southern Spain. However, as soon as Generalissimo Franco ordered partial mobilisation of the Spanish Army, Portugal did likewise. The Portuguese are not at all certain that Spain would vigorously defend herself against an Axis invasion. It was commonly understood in Portugal during the past year that at least 50,000 German troops were garrisoned in Spain to move either on Gibraltar or Portugal for submarine bases along that country’s Atlantic coast. A report, seeming to confirm this, reached Lisbon toward the end of last year, that a Spanish army truck had overturned in an accident in Madrid and not one of the soldier passengers, dressed in Spanish uniforms, could speak Spanish. This may have been more than mere rumour. WATCH ON FRANCO. \ ' Although Franco and Premier Salazar of Portugal maintain very friendly relations, reports were current that Hitler had promised to allow Franco to annex Portugal. For this purpose, it was stated, Spain had built a large number of airfields along the Portuguese border from which to launch an attack. ’ People were generally surprised, because Portugal has only about fifty first-class planes. So the reports were attributed to Axis propaganda sources. But additional Portuguese troops were sent to the border, for while the Portuguese Government knows that the army has no real military value and could not fight any first-class Power, it would make every attempt to defend the country against a Spanish invasion. The Portuguese people are exceptionally proud and consider themselves a race separate and distinct from the Spanish and they would not allow themselves to be .conquered by a nation from which they won independence. Looking forward to the time when the United Nations should take the offensive in North Africa, many Portuguese had felt that when that time arrived Germany would openly invade Spain to defend the western land bridge to Europe. The opinion was generally held that as soon as this occurred the Allies should occupy Portugal, so that the Germans would be unable to raid Allied convoys from coastal cities and the Cape of St Vincent. There is hardly a gun along the entire length of Portuguese coast and the shore is indented with hundreds of long stretches of broad beach. . A GREAT SEA GATEWAY. The estuary of the River Tagus, down which navigators once sailed from Lisbon on thir voyages of exploration, is deep and wide. For instance, the mammoth liner West Point, carrying Axis diplomats from the United States, sailed right up the river to a dock in Lisbon. It was always a subject of discussion among Americans resident in Lisbon that the British or American fleets would escort troop transports up the river when Spain entered the war, willingly or unwillingly, on the side of the Axis. It is interesting to note that the Berlin radio reported that 1,000 people were arrested last week in Portugal in the suppression of a Communist uprising. Petty “revolutions” are a frequent occurrence in Portugal and are hardly noticed by people living there. In connection with these latest arrests, however, it is to be noted that telephone workers in Portugal had been on strike and it is likely that the thousand “Communists” were telephone company strikers. Portugal is normally pro-British and, regardless of the caution exercised by the Government of- the country, the population is grateful for the note of President Roosevelt and realises that no assurances have been received from Germany.