PORTUGUESE MOCKERY OF JUSTICE.
Ito an EDIMIL Or TIM ..SIMCIALTOE:1 Si,—The Lisbon paper Republica of June 7th reported the trial by "Court-Martial" of Dona Julia de Brito a Cunha, whose previous imprisonment (and interrogation by the same irregular Court) I described in the Spectator of March 22nd last year. The Portuguese Government makes itself ridiculous by its continued persecution of this lady philan- thropist, who has never taken any part in politics, and whose activities have been confined to Red Cross nursing and to rescue work. Imprisoned for nine months without trial in the Aljnbe (women's convict prison), she was released in June, 1913, only to be rearrested by the Carbonarios after the so-called "Royalist rising" of October 21st, a "rising" engineered by the Govern- ment as an excuse for making new arrests. The original " accusa- tion " against Dona Julia de Brito was that she, as a member of the Red Cross, had prepared an ambulance for 1180 in case of riots. The second pretext for arresting her in October, 1913, was that several boxes full of hospital appliances were "discovered" in her house. She pointed out that these were the identical appliances which had been returned to her by the Government after her release from peison the previous June. Nevertheless, she was again incarcerated in the Aljnbe among the lowest class of women criminals. There she remained until the amnesty, when she was set free late at night on the evening of February 22nd. The Lisbon Court-Martial is as deficient in sense of humour as in sense of justice, for again the same ludicrous accusation is repeated. The witnesses, a policeman, a carpenter, and a road-sweeper, swore to having seen in her possession "medicine bottles and bandages," and on this evidence Dona Jtiliawas pronounced "guilty of the stated crime "—i.e., the preparation of an ambulance ! It was men- tioned that she would have ministered to the wounded, whether Republican or Royalist ; but this did not mollify her judges, who sentenced her to fifteen years' penal deportation. It is significant that while the Royalist Dona Julia de Brito is branded a conspirator and criminal for belonging to the Red Cross, the Carbonario "defenders of the Republic" are not even rebuked in Court when they boast of killing with poisoned weapons. Under the amnesty the sentence of deportation is annulled in advance ; but the Government may still (according to the Amnesty Bill) substitute a decree of ten years' banishment. The Lisbon Ministry has not yet announced the fate of Dona Julia. She is nearly sixty years of age, and her health is broken by persecution and imprisonment. Ten years' banishment would probably be a death sentence for her. It would certainly still further shake confidence in a Republic which is already notorious for having failed to keep the promises and guarantees contained in its own Constitutional charter, and for having disfranchised seventy-five per cent, of the electomte.—I am, Sir, &o., E. M. TDITISON. Yokes Court, nem --311tingbourne, Sent.
[Miss Tenison is alone responsible for the accuracy of the facts stated in her letter. We have had no opportunity of verifying them. We have, however, little doubt of their truth, and none of her desire to set forth the circumstances correctly, —En. Spectator.]
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