Ka Hoku o Hawaii, Volume XXXVI, Number 9, 25 June 1941 — Portugal Balances on Tight Rope of Neutrality As Blockade Strangles Thrifty National Life [ARTICLE]

Portugal Balances on Tight Rope of Neutrality As Blockade Strangles Thrifty National Life

LISBON, The fish wife in the red ealieo »kirt firmly planted hor bare feet 011 tl,c cobblēd Marcado Peixe, swinging at a eraccful hippy gait tbat ba!ancpd securely on her bead a basket heapwith seafood. Sbe and scores of chattering conipanions moved through the narrow- streets of Lisbon. deftly avotding motor trucks, donkey carts, street cars and pedestrians. If you are a foreiener you dodge awkv?ard-j ly in awe. If you are a native you trust the balaneing act. Por several years now Dr. Ant.onio de 01iveira Sairzar has been as successful in Hguratively halaneing Portugal's relations with hlSj iittory neighbors, Bkilli'ully thread-; his way and PorUig;iris t.hrongh r the lraffic j|m oC war. l)r. Salazar! left tīie c'hair i *b*f economlcs af lhej t*niyersity of Coimbi.i to d*punie j leeUon of th® c<juntr> 's fn>ances un-| der the revolūūonary povprnment| of 1928. Slnc« th«n he has assum«d a fooa tbe burden of the stat«' ās preniTerrTrtlnsster of war :.-:d finance. 6ulH o«toiJ Roads He balanceīT t.lie tMidpet; gave . Portugal fine roads, swung wreck-j ing ci-ews into the picturesque hut| shim-infested narrow streets, and > whipped up the bullock and equally plodding master to stimu-' ]ate apricultural produciion both al l.ome and in the vast Pmtugnose eolonial possessioas. He gave the i'scudo a new meanine in foreign t"Xr!iange and began icaching his countrymen to read their own lang:uagt\ He raised >11 PortugaPs vineyards and imi»voved ali labor conditions. in his own words gave the couTitry an administrative policy "so clear and siniple tbat it eoukl l>e tlie wel: of anv good liouse>\ ;fv ." ln the process there was a lot of "dv.stinß out" fror» < ( -1 to the attics of the So*> years old Portugucse bouee. ShUuar gi-.ve it a new eoat o£ paLit ot a :-Hgh Jy "corporative" color. He e >vered over, it he didn't ehtirely efface. the scars «£ attempts in th* 21 years previous to 1931. For 10 'years uow unclsr Sala2ar Portusal pe&c«iful. Appro»ch ls Re»ti#tic To this, atnong other thlafs, SalMĪtr fouod that ēemoe racy in Portugai "affords no sure «uw%ntee for the s*tety of iodtvior of t»tl*Mle Hberties." that state socialssui "is the bourgeois i esniu> pnr ose l -!i<.'n,'e ;** that Com iiiunism the "great heresy" of our aee, On Uie other liand, he foresav that pi;rliameuts in the future niust leave to the executive "far wider powers than the controiling power whieh u at present yossesses" (the ne w perliament buildiag ihat looks dov n from Kstrela oti ttw harbor is shiny and impdsitig but empty. boiug used only three momhs :i year.) īle held t<s ihe belief that government "shouid legislate in eonsultative coslaboratio-i wnh īhe Oorporative Chamber» <boaies ehot?en by the th » ( >nal syadieates are t.he t v, >r ;He oi£anitaiion of lal > - ipon," Vr.ōcr these preoep{s and others ot thc pro!"essor dictator tho Por t«ituese. (>rldrninded for centuhad a rt»surgence of nat?onal-Oreen-shir?ed youths, Ihe' Foiiasue,se" lhrouh tlie Siiuare« &vi.ug «. civil x^zss£&s*, «tle of the rortusue»<j i<eskni īūeki M 1U Portu*\)eW ev»n<jv.ei-,-r Ams aiul the ne\»siMkSaU;ai s*>s siv 'o t y. o; thr »iui ltke tOvvS wu?t W *,vutivU<»d" eoust*ml> iis« ' :S ; t\;iiv,;v, t 're to t£j Sve ' vunc tho p! tde txnt\£ , w«tch*d C» Sfd«lin*« j w Kept thc \>f Wn»e ( P'ob;< :efi p:\nv; 'v S.-C,3 is: ē.;d "e; , sh s p#f{txraAr,o** < m ihe bj Sbe of >U ' '. o:-.s Nanon*: $vv.a:;s.nv. ! ' v -e : '- v s-,u KoWomk 1 - e M l vvw„Kw». rer«i*aoc J ; to h« aiiUU s ' •.V ! 44V, U' ki , -, hei-s, 'rftte£ni£. % V V"-.- O K<,: t .;■ „!o f,ot £<"1! . e «-s..v t 4 -- sh#t<e o*Ur «\Viv> ' Ki ai*e iuade }\U*u«)lo*e «Wtlß n ftß W t»T^yls to A*oi4 *|TW ** pHw ■ «P m

flicts, in maintaining friendBhipj witli Spain, in deve!opiug the possiblHttCß of our power !n the At|Rntic." Portugal emer g e d smoothly through the dangers tliat arose from living beside a neiglibor in* volved in civll war. It got by wlthout raisiug any undue enmity over Italy*s Ethiopiān campaign. And for the first year. of the war, at 3east, still managed to remain aloo? and more or less secure in its isola' tion far down in the 80uth-westem| corner of Europe. With the second vear of the war the hasket at home! began to be dangerously heaped| with internal problems, many of| them the result ōf external develop * ments. Salazar now found himself' dotng a doubte act wUh a tlght rope' fiei*(Htasace «aded. The tlght rope! *«« neotrality. ! Woekßde No. 1 Prob!em Today Portugal i« the only more than nominaliy neutral country left tn Europe and to remaln neu-' t»l tast a few of the more obvtous proWetns ineluae: I—The British blockade. Navi<*rt reguUtiOfiB &rē hadly plnchlng Portugal's supplies for home industries; handicapping noimal trade with colonies and creating a food problem whieh combined with a bad agrieultural year in 1940 and a devastating cyclone ia 1941 may beeome extremely serious before the end of the year. 2—The problem of how to guard the iast open coast line ia Europe —more than 500 mUes of «uady beaches and roeky promentories, whieh at anv tlme m»ght become hirhly strategically imponam to either beliigerent—for the British as a stepping stone from whieh to n-auempi an offensive ou the eontment or for Get niftny an unprotected ftātik to be oeeupied if aod when !he N&tis attempt to sever BrStain'B enipn e jugular at Oibraltar. 3—~The last port in Europe where Germans and British stilt sip their cocktaiis or whisky and soda in the same bar and do nothing more i than glare at eaeh other; where | you ean bifs a London Daily ExV»ress or a cop> of the Berlin Der Ansriff from the same newsstattd; -where everj* 10th person you meet maj be a spy — "gee that īeilow aver there wilh Uie n^onoele:" i- A ricli coioni«l eiiipire» no nwi'o deiendabte than the Portu- | guese iaaiuia4i4. proinisūui vast dej velopmeni in tbe future. I b The toleratiee with whieh Poi- } tugai has permitted b'. llisere2t and ! non-belligerent to fly or to saii is and out ot its port&. , rntil now the average Portu&uese has been ūulin«vl to leave all these Q«estions to £ala.i.Hi, goias about his t«»slness of piessīsi£ ihe wiue for ihe h!I importav;t Port mdustry, harvesiiii£, h;s wheal aad broad beans. peas ,i:,d :;oe 101 loe&i eor. symption the oli>e £or oil: ?arnermg ihe cork crop; laaniii£ the hidcs; btiagiag m the Ssh e\teh and lookin£ to *he eolonies fO' 'he coffe t for breakf&st, su£a r for hi§ !ea and a u ealih of other pivvlucts. !\>rtusal has been saittijins { t* own h«siness cs.clusively, N\vv wHh every edītion of the press ihe people :iiy wj>nder:ng if they be eomo too excjusive- the lasī aeutra! oov.t-try jn Eurojv.