Portugal of the Portuguese

by Aubrey F. G. Bell

Individual Enterprise.

That these advantages should be turned to account depends rather on the individual energy and enterprise of every Portuguese than on politics. All that should be desired of the Government is that it should afford a fair and open field for individual effort. And every Portuguese who lives not in Paris but in Portugal, who devotes himself to hard work instead of some so-called liberal profession, and who in his own immediate sphere of action encourages among the peasants cleanliness and regard for health, and among the educated toleration and discipline, will do more for Portugal than all the wordy warfare of the party politicians.

Foreign Importations.

Gil Vicente, four centuries ago, implored his countrymen “not to be Genoese but very Portuguese,” and, if the Portuguese wish to renew that respect in which, on account of their past history, they are still held abroad, they will make Portugal not less but more Portuguese. And since all the troubles of Portugal during the last hundred years have come from foreign importations, of language, literature, politics, habits, imperfectly adapted to the requirements, customs, and character of Portugal, there are a hundred ways in which this can be done, as for instance, by purifying the language from Gallicisms and empty pomposities (a Lisbon political party has recently declared its programme to be procurar effectivar uma politica de realizações: the gorgeous sound of it stuns an audience, but the words are really as empty as a pod that rattles in the wind after shedding all its seeds); by encouraging regional literature; by living the Portuguese country life which formed a delightful feature in Portugal before the foreign conquests of the sixteenth century drew all men to Lisbon. Even the importation of foreign capital has been a doubtful gain, and has either been squandered with small result or been applied by foreigners. “Our principal railway company is foreign, our electric trams foreign, the gas company is largely constituted by foreign capital, our chief exports, as those of cork, preserves, wine of Oporto and Madeira, copper, etc., are in the hands of foreigners, a great part of our external commerce and transports is carried on by foreigners” (O Seculo, 13th November, 1911). And, worst of all, the political programmes are foreign. Foreigners may be inclined to smile when they see foreign customs and institutions (as the English parliamentary system) distorted and misapplied in Portugal, but for all that is genuinely Portuguese they can have nothing but admiration and respect.

Local Influence.

With a population so docile and ready to learn, above all so inclined to prefer some distant uncertainty to the reality before them, it is all-important to have a strong non-political influence in each parish, whether that influence be of priest or professor, doctor or landowner. Without some such nucleus more and more will vagueness and bewilderment drive the peasant in a stream of emigration to Lisbon and Brazil, and Portugal become denationalised.

Scope for all Portuguese.

That “violent change” advocated by A Vanguarda in 1913 was brought about two years later by the movement, without violence, which brought General Pimenta de Castro into power. Snr. Manoel de Arriaga and General Pimenta de Castro deserve the lasting gratitude of their country for having attempted to provide the first indispensable conditions for all those who wish to work for the good of Portugal. A Government of this kind, impartial, conciliatory, and firm, offered to every Portuguese without exception—even Snr. Paiva Conceiro, the leader of the Royalist incursions of 1911 and 1912, was allowed to return—an opportunity to lay politics aside and unite to raise Portugal from her present misery. Every sincere Portuguese will admit that there is much work ready to his hand which has little to say to politics, if it be only the development of an acre of land or the reconciliation between two rival points of view. And another sign of good omen is the more serious outlook on life of the younger generation and the existence of a new party—that of the Integralists—which is inclined to set to work obscurely, gradually, unconventionally, with a view to the actual needs of the people, of the professional working man.

New Conquests.