1941: Portugal

During 1941 Portugal was primarily concerned with guarding its continental independence against a possible German attack, and preserving its imperial unity against precautionary measures threatened by enemies of the Axis. The country's dual rôle as a European and an overseas power made the rigid enforcement of its neutrality a matter of life or death. The Lisbon Government feared that any move toward assisting the Allies would bring on German occupation of the country, while any inclination to collaborate with the Nazis might lead to seizure of its strategic island bases by Great Britain or the United States.

Diplomatic Crisis with the United States.

A serious diplomatic crisis followed President Roosevelt's 'unlimited national emergency' speech of May 27, in which the American Chief Executive stated that German occupation of Portugal's Azores and Cape Verde Islands would 'directly endanger the freedom of the Atlantic and our own physical safety,' and therefore that 'it would be suicide to wait until they [the Nazis] are in our front yard.' Senator Claude Pepper specifically advocated United States occupation of the Portuguese islands. After these public utterances, a wave of national indignation and anti-American sentiment swept over Portugal. On May 30 the Lisbon Government lodged a formal protest against President Roosevelt's intimation that the United States might deem it expedient to occupy Portuguese islands. Although the State Department reassured Lisbon on June 10 and 13, anti-American feeling ran high throughout the summer. On July 12, Portugal sent to the Azores the fourth contingent of troops in three months, the largest defense force ever sent to the colony. Two weeks later President Carmona visited the Azores for the first time, and on Aug. 5 the Portuguese Government imposed travel restrictions on all aliens entering the colony, where Pan American Airways maintained a base. In mid-August, however, a Portuguese emissary to Rio de Janeiro informally suggested that it might be advisable for Brazil, with United States support, to undertake protection of the Atlantic colonies in time of crisis.

Portugal's Far Eastern colonies were directly affected by impending war and the outbreak of hostilities in the Pacific. In January 1941 the British established regular air services between Australia and Portuguese Timor, located 450 miles from the Australian naval base at Port Darwin. Following Japanese demands for a similar concession, Lisbon agreed on Oct. 14 to permit Japan to set up an airline between Timor and the Japanese-mandated Palau Islands. On Dec. 17 Netherland and Australian forces occupied Portuguese Timor in order to prevent Japanese use of the strategic island. Two days later Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar told a special session of the National Assembly in Lisbon that Portugal demanded immediate withdrawal of the Allied Forces. The British and Dutch Governments, while refusing to remove their garrisons in the face of a Japanese menace, promised to do so as soon as the danger period had passed.

Economic Warfare.

The United States and Great Britain cooperated throughout the year in a program of economic warfare against Axis agents in Portugal. Both groups of powers in the present conflict have tried to obtain the bulk of Portugal's strategic products, and have pressed Lisbon to cut down shipments to the enemy. Wartime demands in 1941 caused Portuguese exports of cork, tungsten and tin to reach unprecedented heights. Portugal normally supplies about 60 per cent of the United States imports of cork, one of the 'critical' defense materials, but in 1941 it provided over 90 per cent of total American imports. The sharp curtailment of United States imports of tungsten from the Far East, even before the outbreak of hostilities with Japan, led to heavy buying of this vital mineral in Portugal. A 'tungsten rush' in the summer of 1941 attracted many Portuguese farmers away from their land and for a time threatened the country's food supply, until the Government intervened late in the year to control production, price and export of the commodity.

Natural Disasters.

Two natural catastrophes befell the Portuguese people in 1941. The first, a cyclone of unprecedented violence, ravaged the country on Feb. 15. Telephone and telegraphic communications were interrupted; wharves and quays in the coastal towns were battered; inland factories and other buildings collapsed; rich pine woods and olive groves were destroyed; rivers overflowed and flooded lowland districts. Much of the country's agricultural wealth was lost, and a large part of its fishing fleet wrecked.

On Nov. 25 Lisbon, Madeira and the Azores suffered the most violent earthquake recorded since 1755. Fires broke out in several urban districts, but damage was relatively slight and no casualties were reported. Another quake, classed as 'violent' but less severe than the shock of Nov. 25, rocked Lisbon on Dec. 27. Although it deplored losses incurred during the cyclone and the earthquakes, Portugal recognized that its neutrality had spared the country much greater sacrifices which other European peoples had been forced to make.