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18.

223

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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