Portugal fights on
Sir: Having some knowledge of Portuguese Guinea, Angola and Mozambique, I enjoyed Mr Brian Crozier's excellent article, 'Portugal fights on' (11 October).
Given more space he might have added that the Bakongo 'nationalists,' who seven years ago launched their wave of terrorism in northern Angola and massacred over a thousand white Portuguese men, women and children and very many more black Portuguese, came from across the Congo border in fulfilment of the well-laid plans of a cousin of the late Patrice Lumumba —who had, as he still has, foreign backing and does not speak Portuguese, having left Angola for the Congo at the age of three.
Mr Crozier rightly stresses that none of the rival 'nationalist' movements have struck a responsive chord-with the local people. Witness the terrorists' failure to disrupt coffee growing in northern Angola from increasing spectacu- larly. That province is today the largest pro ducer in Africa.
As for FRELIMO 'successes' in northern Mozambique, anybody who visits this sup- posedly infected area, as I have just done after an interval of two years, is struck by the f. that no really serious threat exists. Airpoi which in 1966 were bristling with defences are now almost unguarded. What captured documents reveal is disillusionment and retreat.
Portugal has relatively very large forces in Africa, but the figure of 200,000 troops over- seas is, in fact, in excess of the total strength of the Portuguese army.
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