The Playwright

The troubled world of the 20th century can boast no better-mannered or more enduring dictatorship than that of Portugal's ascetic, self-effacing Antonio de Oliveira Salazar. After about 21 years of would-be democracy, characterized largely by repeated bloodshed, revolution, and 40-odd changes of government, the Portuguese in 1932 were only too glad to turn their problems over to Dictator Salazar, who has been running the country with quiet efficiency and no organized opposition ever since. The rare eccentric who dares to raise his voice against the regime gets so little popular support that Salazar can afford to be quite polite about it.

This politeness was the keynote of the trial for treason in March 1953 of lean, handsome Playwright Henrique Galvao, a onetime captain in the Portuguese army whose loyal service in the cause of Salazar had earned him a high place in the nation's African colonial service. Few know precisely what brought about Galvao's downfall, beyond the fact that a series of charges laid by him against the colonial administration soon after he returned to Portugal to take a seat in the National Assembly led to the dismissal of one of Salazar's top colonial hands.

The dictator could not very well overlook evidence that his colonial administration was gypping the home government by permitting local businesses to sell their goods abroad at a fat profit instead of shipping them back to Portugal at government-controlled prices--but he did not have to like it. Playwright Galvao was quietly dropped from the list of acceptable Assembly candidates by the nation's only political party, and soon afterward was hauled off to jail on charges of plotting against the regime.

The Well-Plotted Dream. At his second trial (the first conviction was set aside by the Supreme Court), Salazar's prosecutors were models of tolerance and gallantry. They addressed the prisoner deferentially as "Your Excellency," and allowed his partisans to harangue the court with a revolutionary tirade well peppered with liberal quotes from Victor Hugo ("When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right").

But with all the politeness in the world the learned Portuguese judges could not disregard a bulky file, uncovered in Galvao's apartment, which contained a detailed blueprint for the overthrow of the government. In his own defense, Galvao pleaded that the carefully constructed plot was merely an outline for a play he had in mind.

"I won't deny," he said, "that I myself and thousands of other Portuguese patriots are dissatisfied with the present regime and eager for political freedom, but dreaming is one thing and action is another." The critical opinion of the judges was definitely unfavorable: three years in prison. Before the verdict was even announced, Galvao got busy sawing away the iron bars of his detention cell. Caught in the act and led off to another cell, he shouted defiantly: "The last act of this drama has not yet been written!"

The Endless Entr'acte. Soon afterward, political pamphlets attacking the Salazar government began filtering through the land. Connoisseurs easily recognized in them the stylistic mark of Galvao. As a result of the investigation that followed shortly, the director of Galvao's prison was dismissed and his assistant committed suicide. Due out of prison in October 1954, Galvao was arraigned again on charges of "abuse of the press and insults," and held without bail. Portugal waited breathlessly for the third act of the drama to begin, but somehow the curtain never went up.

Pleading ill-health as an excuse, Playwright Galvao himself refused to come out of jail to face trial on the new charges, and the polite dictatorship of Antonio Salazar seemed more than willing to gratify his whims. Last week, apparently preferring martyrdom to a third act which might not turn out the way he wanted, Scripter Galvao dismissed his defense counsel on the grounds that it was impossible to get a fair trial and so he needed no lawyers: he would stay where he was.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.