The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-02-04
VARIOUS PREDICTIONS.

PARIS, November 24.-Reports rep
resenting that Portugal is on the eve
of a revolution are received here with
caution, as dispatches coming directly
from that country have been censored,
and those coming indirectly across the
frontier are held more or less under
suspicion. Both the reports of the ban
ishment of the Crown Prince and the
mutiny of the fleet are denied at the
embassy here; nevertheless the making
of arrests, the suspension of a news
paper land other repressive measures
which have been taken by what Pre-
mier Franco terms an administrative
dictatorship seem conclusive that mat
tiers in Portugal have entered upon a
critical phase.
This condition undoubtedly has been
precipitated by the Interview with
King Carlos, which was published last
week, in which he announced his alb
Solute faith in Premier Franco, and his
intention to allow the Premier to
choose the time for the holding of the
election of the Cortes. The parlfa-
mentary opposition which has been
stirring up the country for months past
was expected by gigantic demonstra-
ton planned for January next to
force the King to dismiss Premier
Franco, but His Majesty's bold in
dorsement of the dictatorship removes
this hope abruptly, consolidating the
entire opposition in the direction of re-
publicanism.
Senior Ma, the proprietor of the news
paper Vanguardia, of Lisbon, which
was suppressed, is now in Paris, and
considers that republic is newt
able, and that the issue will be decided
the people are hostile to the dynasty
and that the army is disaffected.
IF the King abdicates," he said,
there will be a peaceful republic, as
in the case of Brazil. If he does not,
violent Effects
A correspondent of the Temps, who
has just returned after an investiga-
tion of affairs in Portugal, and who
has had an interview with King Carlos,
Premier Franco, ex-Premier Castro
and the ex-Premier of Justice, as well
as opposition leaders, makes it clear
that the situation is the outgrowth of
scandaIous practises which have been
endured for years The main objects
OF the progressive ana regeneration
parties alike under the rotative sys-
TEN, he says, was to preserve personal
emoluments, and whether in office
or out, they protected each other $
sinecures, while at the same time the
members of the royal family got ''ad-
vances" which were never paid.
Premier Franco, when he assumed
the dictatorship, cut off the parliament
tary sinecures, arousing the fury not
only of the politicians. but the cour-
tiers as well. and even the Queen
mother. On the other hand, he legal
lied the Kings advances and increased
his allowances by decree on the ground
that the civil list was so insufficient
that the royal family were obliged to
sell the crown Jewels, mortgage their
property and hypothecate their hold
ings of government lands
He, however, shrewd1y increased the
salaries of poorly paid government en-
ployes and the officers of the army and
navy, the net results of these changes
being a considerable saving to the
treasury.
Premier Franco, according to the cor
respondent, insists that the people and
the military are for the King and that
the surface effervescence has been en-
gineered by the politicians.