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18. The continued use of our cable stations is of great importance to us and the Portuguese have been entirely
helpful. They strengthened the garrison and stationed a guard ship at the Azores at the beginning of the war, and
futhermore allowed us to cut the German cable. Similarly
they have given extra protection to the cable station at
Madeira.
19.
It follows from the above that our principal strategic requirements in regard to a neutral Portugal have been achieved up to the present time. On the other
hand, as pointed out by the Foreign Office there are indications that in a number of ways the Portuguese authorities are witholding their co-operation, and that they are taking up an attitude of rigid neutrality.
Defence Commitments with Portugal as a Belligerent on our side.
20. With Portugal in the war as a belligerent on our side
we should almost certainly become involved in added defence
commitments owing to the generally weak and backward state
of the Portuguese armed forces and defences.
21.
Her Navy is too small to be a factor of importance,
the Army is inefficient and its equipment obsolescent, and
the Air Force is negligible. There are virtually no air
defences, the local naval defences except at Lisbon are
non-existent, and all the coast defences are in a poor state.
Portugal could, at present, be overrun without much
difficulty by an army invading across her Spanish frontier.
22.
While we might, in time, be able to full the gaps in
her local naval defences, there is little we could do to
remedy her military and air deficiencies.
Their weakness
would only be of real significance if a strategic situation
should arise in which Spanish territory could be used for
land and air attack on Portugal.
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