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Show mm PORTUGAL CRUEL TO mm j Political , Captives Treated So Outrageously That Europe ! Threatens to Interfere. j JAILS OVERCROWDED Young- "Republic" Worse! "Than Russia in Method of 1 Dealing With Accused. Special Cable to The Tribune. 73 HULLS". Dec. J-t. Tho younz republic re-public of Portugal, whigh is by no means as firing' established as most people believe, has until now not fallen fal-len veiy Jar behind Russia in its orneJ treatment of the political prisoners prison-ers who refuse to piyo up their loyalty to tho royal house ot Brapin-za, Brapin-za, but I lie severities ol! Mm authorities au-thorities has not brought bucucssI'uI results, so lately a largo part of tho moderate press lias begun a campaign against the government, declaring that the cruel treatment of political offenders offend-ers is a national disgrace, and must cease. That demand is strongly indorsed in-dorsed by many prominent Republicans. In the Jiimoeiro, the largest of the old-time prisons in Lisbon, there are largo numbers of individuals accused of conspiring against the republic, some of whom have been awaiting trial for over a year. In one cell there arc cloeo upon forty prisouers huddled together, with only proper accommodation for eighteen. Many aro obliged to seop on the cold, damp floors, with onlv a coarse- rug to cover them. Tho food supplied is generally uneatable and the occupants of the cells present a heartrending heart-rending and starved appearance. By law, political prisoners havo tlio right of procuring food and clothes from outside, out-side, but this liberty has been denied them. In tho Castlo of St. Georgo prison main' of I lie prisoners are huddled together to-gether in. low underground colls, -whore, but'littlo air filters in from small upper up-per windows and when it. rain,s the .cells aro drenched . and the' prisoners soaked. There is, - too, almost-a total absence of tho most necessary sanitary conditions. Theso conditions are aro-proach aro-proach (o a nation that claims lo be civilized, as Portugal does. Tho government alleges in defense that the prisons are the same that served for tho Republican prisoners under un-der the monarchy. While this may be so, it is a fact that there was never such overcrowding. Moreover, the Republican Re-publican prisoners wero far better treated-, good food being allowed them, as well as tho liberty lo proouro small necessary comforts from outside. Furthermore, for a government which promised ' reforms and a tolerant attitude atti-tude toward political offenders, tho maintenance of such mediaeval dungeons dun-geons and unjust treatment is inexplicable. inex-plicable. Tho . critics of the government demand de-mand the end of all these cruelties at once, and declaro that, unless the government gov-ernment abolishes them' itself, foreign governments will interfere, which they would in fact have done somo' months ago but for tho outbreak of tho Balkan Bal-kan war. |