" Salazar Day "
Last Monday was celebrated by the people of Portugal as a day of national homage to their great Prime Minister, Dr. Salazar. In the twelve years in which his has been the chief influence in the administration his country has recovered from the economic and financial disorder in which he found its affairs and has come to enjoy a prosperity formerly denied it by political mismanagement. His system is not based on the democratic methods which we in this country have adopted, but it has nothing whatever in common with the methods adopted by the dictators of Germany and Italy. The tributes recently paid to him by representatives of the University of Oxford aptly showed the admiration that can be felt by sincere believers in democracy for a leader who, even without the constitutional procedure of democracy, devotes his life to the reform of administration and the better- ment of the life of the people. Great- Britain has never demanded that other countries should adopt our form of Government, and Dr. Salazar is at one with our rulers In holding the same fundamental conception of respect for treaties and of the rights of other nations ; and has made it an easy matter for us to maintain the historic policy of close friendship with Portugal by commanding our respect for the good government which now prevails and the enlightened reforms which have been adopted.
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