Challenging a rosy picture of Portugal

HUGH KAY'S rosy picture (September 26) for the future of Portugal and her colonies needs to be challenged. One can only assume that he relied on the Portuguese Foreign Office handouts. To discuss all his article would take too long: these remarks will thus only be concerned with Mozambique and Portugal's relations with it. It is, though, some indication how Metropolitan Portugal is run and. more particularly, how Portugal's other overseas possessions are governed_
First. let us examine the myth of Caetano's liberalism. He is in power because he supported Salazar. Salazar was backed by the military. big landowners and industrialists. No political parties were allowed. The same applies today. There is still acute poverty and oppression in Portugal. And as home has not changed, neither has Mozam• bique.
Consider Portugal's allies in Southern Africa, a point not mentioned by Hugh Kay. They are South Africa and Rhodesia. The hierarchies of both these countries have roundly and rightly condemned the colour bars which prevail in these two states. In 1967 Vorster, Prime Minister of South Africa, said: "We are good friends with both Portugal and Rhodesia. Good friends do not need a (defence) pact." For those aware of the situation in South Africa this must speak volumes.
There is also the myth that the Africans in Portugal's provinces have the same chances
as whites, that the only differences are those of class, not colour. The position in Mozambique is this: 97.5 per cent of the population is African. with an annual income of £30 a head.
In the early 1960s there were reforms. One was to remove the distinction between "assimilated" and "non-assimilated" Africans. Previously, the former had to be of a certain economic and literacy level (despite the fact that 50 per cent of the whites are illiterate). By 1960 only 4,555 Africans out of a population of seven million had been assimilated — hardly a good record, especially as the Portuguese have been there since the time of Vasco da Gama!
But after the "reforms" all such distinctions were supposed to have gone. This was nonsense, as the "non-assimilated" had to have different passes. They are still paid at lower rates and can be confined to certain areas. This is very similar to the pass laws which operate for blacks only in South Africa.
In fact. a committee of the United Nations Special Cornmittee on Territories under Porto guese Administration said in August, 1962: ". . . practices associated with the institution of forced labour continue . . . from all the information . . there has been little or no substantial change in the daily lives of the indigenous population" (i.e., since the reform).
Hugh Kay says. "Conditions in Angola and Mozambique are peaceful." Portugal is spending 40 per cent of its budget on defence—a rising figure. The Johannesburg Star estimates that Portugal loses 100 soldiers a month in Mozambique alone. In 1964 there were 35,000 Portuguese soldiers there, and 70,000 in 1967.
The liberation organisation,
F.R .E.L.1.M.O., has about 8,000 trained men and approximately 20 per cent of Mozambique in its control. This area is administrated by F.R.E.L.I.M.O. and areas previously uncultivated are now sown, schools and hospitals have been opened.
The war of liberation is fought on a vicious scale by both sides. but at least F.R.E.L.I.M.O. does not bomb and napalm defenceless villagers, as do Portugal's troops.
Lest one should think this revolution unnecessary it is worth noting that on June 26. 1960. about 500 Africans were massacred at Mueda; Portuguese soldiers opened fire on a body of people gathered for a peaceful demonstration over economic grievances. The lesson seemed to be that peaceful action was useless.
I. M. Richards
Cardiff.
Hugh Kay writes: Mt. Richards relies heavily on the pre-1962 situation when I am concerned with 1969. He also perpetuates myths demolished in 1962 by the special report on Portuguese Africa by the International Labour Organisa tion's investigators, who sharply rejected Ghana's complaints against Portugal. The report, obtainable from any ILO office, also deals favourably with questions of freedom, the relationships of black and white, the motives and achievements of the official cadres. Its criticisms are searching, but reflect a strong conviction that the Portuguese have embarked on the road to radical change.
My sources are not official handouts, but on-the-spot inquiries of my own over eight years, including hundreds of interviews with black and white people of all political shades. Mr. Richard's letter contains many well worn. and outworn, inaccuracies, e.g. FRELIMO's territorial claims, which in fact were long since debunked by the BBC, The Times, the Daily Telegraph and dozens of other British, U.S. and European newspapers.
I cannot deal here with all the points raised. but I will ask this question : if the situation in Portuguese Africa bears any real relation to the dangerous and highly inflammable set-up pictured by your correspondent, why on earth does he suppose that French. German, American, Dutch, Swiss, Swedish and Japanese business firms are sinking many millions in those territories?
There is much to be said in criticism of the Portuguese record. Equally, it is only fair to plot the graph of change as it occurs. Anyone who was in Mozambique in 1962 and has returned there in the period 1966-69 must know that the climate and conditions have changed out of all recognition.