OCR Text |
Show Republican Leaders Jubilant j'H Over Prospect of Downfall j of the Monarchy. f Wt FINANCIAL CRISIS IS LH AN IMPORTANT FACTOR ? j Censorship So'Strict That It Is .IB Difficult to Learn Exact ,. tt Conditions. ''-mt LI5ABON. Feb. S (via Badajos, H! Spain, Feb. S"). The republican lcadern "Bt' in Portugal arc today in extremely high. JB spirits. They assert confidently that .H a republic is now a mattor of months, fl; not of years. The Associated Press to- Hi day secured an opinion ou the. situation and outlii'e of the republican plan of H campaign from perhaps the uiost coinpe- VH tenl. spokesman of the party. This man j. Hj' "Tho end of tho monaVchy is near. ''Hi It will come as unexpectedly "as did tho lK' murder- of the king and the crown JB prince, and the world will wake up Hh ouo morning to find a republic in Por- Hi, tugnl. We arc convinced that the rcvo- j. Hj lu.ion will bo a peaceful one.. It is :i l IE mistake for foreigners to imagine that I mm the people of Portugal are not awake-. f. Wff : There is a republican organization in I 5j- I every town, and doctors, lawyers, and . I HiV i even village priests arc sending in no- tic.es of their adherence by the score. i m ! and there arc avowed repubtieau oft'i- ! I i ccrs iu the army. ii King Well-Meaning Boy. f "King Manuel is a well-intentioned ' -1 boy. He starts his rcgimo with fair J . K words and the restoration of political ' tfyl liberty, but it is inevitable that ho tftji should fall into the hands of the. man- j i jji ipulators of tho two old parties -whoso j , J bankruptcy was proclaimed by King- j 31 Carlos nnd Premier Franco. The men ' j about the throno know that the end is t I K near, and when the time comes thai; ' ! 4 they realize that they cannot fight : they will surrender as did Dom Pedro tj j iu .Brazil. I don't think a shot will bo j fired. King Carlos knew he was muk- tJ it ling his last fight. He had transferred I I )fc every dollar he had to England. i "Wc will make a change of regimo I f I an -open issue in. the, coming-campaign. 43 P 1 We "will' demand that the monarchy, j ' I which lias dragged down Portugal into . ? the miro of political nnd financial' I'll bankruptcy, abdicate to the people. 'Ji' They dare not try repression again; I 1 they can only surrender." i Lisbon Still Armed Camp. f Whilo the troops since last Tuesday J : I have remained in their barracks during ft the day-time, Lisbon at night still ro- ' (J sembles an armed camp. Cavalry is ''J n massed . in the public, squares, pickets T li patrol the streets, and heavily armed iB soldiers guard the state bank night aud ; I The financial situation is viewed j ' j with great alarm. The country is stag- t R goring under its foreign debt, and com- ' mcrce is almost paralyzed by the flue- 1 tuations of the gold premium. Coii- I servalive bankers consider the financial f IS situation to bo -more critical than the f i i political. j j ; The outside world, in spite of tho ) ,. studied censorship, which has defeated l B its own object, should not imagine that I f Hit I the throne of Portugal is tottering to- i fj ward revolution and Hint a republic is t f m" imminent. The general situation is gravo m l rather than alarming. Political con- t If S ditions, already chaotic before the mur- ; V e dor of the king nnd crown prince, be- 5? came utterly demoralized after the -Jv ffi commission of these crimes. Then con- if stcrnation and panic prevailed among l the police and at court, and the rolensoj j tj of 1-ranco's strong hand from the helm' f' fjj 1$ left the ship of state adrift. But with" HI if the new cabinet, pledged to coustitu- $Jlli tionul methods and the abolition of the V ui distatorahip and existing measures of repression, the situation improved. King" w' Manuel openly acknowledged the ir- ..iL regularity of the money advauces to. the ' royal family under his father's reign. tfWI which wore tho original causes of tho : j n political turmoil, aud he publiclv or- t'f do red the discontinuance of 'this 'prao- i1 Bl ticc. ;ir:H Future Vci-y Uncertain. J fi It is hard to forecast the future. If P fl things drift back to the old rut of , Ij H 'governmental corruption whence King; I'll Carlos and Premier Franco rescued the I monarchy, a republic might come. Tho' f I republicans are the natural inheritors , f ,M of the mistakes of the monarchy, but. f the masses are groauing under their ' U jl personal bdrdens. They arc cither ig- , vfl norant of or indifferent to the political till turmoil. Something is necessary to gal- 'S v.inizo them into action, and tliis in ex- f ifl actly what the small but evidently des- lvH perate organization of militant rovolu-' 't ? jB tionists in Lisbon and Oporto arc trying 'JB to do. j Thoy want to drive tho people . ifl I The immediate danger in the situa- L rMI hon comes from the fact that the po- t : 'jiJfil lice are baffled and the government l' M'H unable to ascertain the extent, of ihe IB ramifications of tho conspiracies wli'ich MmM have beeu indicated .during the. last . JM fortnight by the discovery-ht' various' places of bombs and arms and nmmu- 1 jjffl niiion: ft wns known that Premier . Ift'H Franco v,-as marked for assassination. ifcfl That is why he deemed it wise to iloo. P'fl But tho assassination of the King wan 'BM not- expected, and it created almost a t fcfl reign of terror in high places. L Royal Family Marked. There .'is not tho slightest question .' jrfl that ihc plot was onlv half succese- V B;H ful. The murder of the entire nival 1 grill family and the extinction of the dy'ii m(H asty was. the scheme of the conspirn-' - W tors. It. is certain that other men had IrJmt been stationed at other points of tho - jvjm route of tho royal carriage tlfat fatal ? f-B Saturday aftcrnoou, and Unit if tho - Rfl murder had no: been committed' w.hcu i 13 Ml it was it would have been attempted h lifl elsewhere. That same night an attempt MmM was made to bring about a mntinv on 8AI the part of the infantry and artillery i JjO rogimcnts in Lisbon, but the olliei-rV !' . wH locked the doors ui the barracks imil yamm 1 II the conspirators were unnble to gain access to f.ho men. ..There have been many reports of dis-, dis-, satisfaction in ihe afiuy and navy, l)ufc careful investigation Hoes not con firm them, and it, mav bo assumed that, the military is still" loyal. The later pari of this week the fear crew thai, another attempt would be made the da- the funerals wore held Saturday to comploto the bloody work that was left unfinished a week aj;o. To prevent anything of this kind, extraordinary ex-traordinary precautions were taken. At firftl the Iving insisted on following on foot behind the collins of his father and brother, with his uncle, the Duke of. Oporto, but was dissuaded by his mother. Queen Amclic, and the Premier, Pre-mier, Admiral Ferreirn. who refused to absumc any responsibility for such rash-Ccnsorship rash-Ccnsorship Rigorous. Tho censorship that is being maintained main-tained at Lisbon over both commercial and prest dispatches is rigorous. There is in operation a regular star chamber io prevent any but the most rosv view of the situation from reaching tho out- side world. Even letters mailed at the Ii (hisiuiiiccs arc opened uy wit; .luiuun- lies. The foreign newspaper correspondents, corre-spondents, who flocked into Lisbon after aft-er the tragedy, wore completely foiled, , for several days, and they were . in formed by telegraph officials, high and jl low, that' the censorship was virtually :j at nn end. By this means they were I induced to fili their messages in Lis- bon. But thousands of the words writ ten by the newspaper men never got i any further than the waste-paper bas il i ke. The senders became suspeious that t hey wore being I ricked,' and this J belief was ilnalh- confirmed when sec- ; j tions of news dispatches taken at rnn- :', dom, in order to completely destroy tho sense of thesfcxt. were returned to the writers. The censorship was applied I in the most; stupid fashion. Not only j was everything representing Portugal to be in oilier than a state of blisstnl tranquillity and deepest mourning eliiu-J eliiu-J inaed from the out-going press reports, ii but whenever a censor with a half knowledge ,o foreign languages saw a I .word that looked dangerous ho would t( extract a whole sentence, regardless of '1 the senso and meaning. As an instauce. a dispatch sent to the Associated Press denying the re-; re-; ports of a) uprising at Oporto was 4 mutilated by the -arbitrary striking out . of words" like revolutionary. " f. "rilles' "plot," etc. The use of aiiy I words, "regicide," ".dictatorship. ' "arms, "bombs," "plots," or tho r like was usually sufficient to have the .message thrown away, quito regardless 1 Vx tnc quotation in which tho words jJf,(g were used. Statements that troops J JftV were on the streets of Lisbon were can- jat( , celled, and nothing rcgardiug the finan- vKJfij! c'a' situation was allowed to pass the jJw.StV . censor . |