March 7, 2015

Finest Hour 158, Spring 2013

Page 28

By Fred Glueckstein

“I have an announcement to make to the House pertaining to the Treaty signed between this country and Portugal in the year 1373 between His Majesty King Edward III and King Ferdinand and Queen Eleanor of Portugal.”

HOUSE OF COMMONS, 12 OCTOBER 1943— Members of Parliament were startled, but some of those familiar with the prime minister smiled. Churchill the historian had expected the reaction: “I spoke in a level voice, and made a pause to allow the House to take in the date, 1373. As this soaked in there was something like a gasp.”¹ The prime minister had just invoked the oldest active treaty in the world.

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Churchill went on to report that based on the 570-year-old agreement the United Kingdom had requested, and Portugal had agreed, that His Majesty’s Government be accorded certain facilities in key islands of the Azores to protect merchant shipping in the Atlantic. Recalling the announcement in his war memoirs, he added: “I do not suppose any such continuity of relations between two Powers has ever been, or will ever be, set forth in the ordinary day-to-day work of British diplomacy.”²

Churchill’s wartime invocation of the ancient Anglo-Portuguese Alliance is best understood in light of the political and military state of affairs between the United Kingdom and Portugal, at the time an authoritarian regime under António de Oliveira Salazar.

The old treaty was no less ignored in Lisbon. Expecting an imminent British declaration of war on Germany, Portugal had sent London a note on 1 September 1939. It confirmed that the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, which had established a pact of mutual support between the countries, remained intact, but stated that since London did not seek Lisbon’s assistance, Portugal would remain neutral. The Foreign Office confirmed Portugal’s declaration of neutrality in an aide mémoire on September 5th.³ From a military perspective, Britain hoped that Portuguese neutrality would prevent the war from expanding into the Iberian Peninsula.

During 1940-41, Salazar used diplomatic efforts, and his relationship with Spain’s dictator, General Francisco Franco, to prevent Spain from entering the war on the side of the Axis, which some, given Germany’s aid to Franco in the recent Spanish Civil War, considered a likely possibility. By his actions Salazar sought to avoid Portugal being invaded by Spain or the Germans.

On 24 September 1940, Churchill wrote Salazar to thank him for his efforts, referring to the old alliance: “I have followed with greatest sympathy and admiration the efforts you have made to prevent war from spreading to the Iberian Peninsula. As so often during the many centuries of the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance, British and Portuguese interests are identical on this vital question.”⁴

Three years later, the position had changed. Britain was in the midst of the Battle of the Atlantic, striving to break the grip of Germany’s U-boats on vital shipping from North America. Churchill understood that until the U-boats were destroyed, it would be impossible to engage in the enormous transport operations required before assailing Hitler’s Fortress Europe. Specifically, Churchill and President Roosevelt agreed that the Portuguese Azores would give the Anglo-Americans a base to cover the “Mid-Atlantic Gap,” an undefended zone beyond the reach of Britain’s Coastal Command aircraft, which had seen an ominous rise in merchant shipping losses.

The importance of the Azores to the Allies was clear to all, but there was a difference of opinion on how to secure them. The British Foreign Office wanted to use diplomatic efforts; Churchill, Roosevelt and their Combined Chiefs of Staff wanted to occupy the islands militarily before the Germans did. But the military timetable changed and on 11 June 1943, Churchill advised the President that his military advisers had informed him that the Azores could not be occupied until the end of August.⁵

This development gave diplomacy another chance. Sir Ronald Hugh Campbell, British Ambassador to Portugal, suggested that Salazar, who wished to avoid Anglo-American military occupation of the islands, might be open to granting access to them. Campbell was long recognized for his outstanding negotiation skills: he had been Ambassador to Paris until France fell in June 1940, had returned to London, and took up his post in Lisbon the following November.

The opportunity presented by Campbell to negotiate for peaceful occupation of the Azores appealed to Churchill’s sense of history. In staff discussions, the Prime Minister suggested that Salazar might agree if Britain invoked the 1373 Treaty, Article I of which was encouraging:

In the first place we settle and covenant that there shall be from this day forward…true and faithful, constant, mutual and perpetual friendships, unions, alliances and needs of sincere affection, and that as true and faithful friends we shall henceforth, reciprocally, be friends to friends and enemies to enemies, and shall assist, maintain and uphold each other mutually, by sea and by land, against all men that may live or die.⁶

The historian in Churchill also knew there was a precedent for invoking the old alliance. In 1807 Napoleon, having declared war on Britain, had delivered an ultimatum to Portugal, demanding that Portuguese ports be closed to British shipping. Portugal had refused, citing the 1373 Treaty, and the Portuguese Royal Family, aware of the likely consequences, had fled to Brazil, escorted by the British fleet. Napoleon and his French army had duly invaded Portugal and captured Lisbon. But Britain had come to Portugal’s aid in 1808, and the six-year Peninsular War against France had culminated in the defeat of Napoleon.

Likewise, a century later, Portugal had joined the Western Allies in World War I, where, at the Battle of Lys in Flanders, the Portuguese suffered 7000 casualties.

While Churchill was sure the 1373 Treaty would form the basis of agreement in 1943, he understood that negotiations were required, and Ronald Campbell was ideal for the job. After three months of discussions, Great Britain was accorded airfield and naval facilities in the Azores. The Portuguese agreed to grant use of the Azores to the UK immediately, while the British promised essential material and supplies to the Portuguese armed forces. The agreement was acknowledged as temporary, and in no way affecting Portuguese sovereignty. British forces would be withdrawn at the end of hostilities, and the agreement also recognized Portugal’s continued neutrality.⁷

After Churchill’s address to the Commons, American monitors in Berlin reported German reactions to the U.S. Office of War Information. While Berlin did not condemn Portugal’s action, it declared that Lisbon “obviously agreed to these concessions under strong British and United States pressure.”⁸ Meanwhile, the German news agency reported that the German Consulate on the Azores was being closed and German nationals were leaving the islands.

On October 13th, the day after Churchill’s announcement, President Roosevelt told his radio press conference that a decision to seek Portuguese agreement for bases in the Azores was reached at conferences between himself and Churchill in Washington the previous May. The agreement was made by Britain, he explained, in view of the 14th century Anglo-Portuguese Treaty. Otherwise the U.S. would have joined with Britain in seeking Azores facilities. Would American forces also use the bases? Roosevelt explained that Britain and the United States were allies which, in prosecuting the war, frequently conducted joint operations. In emergencies, he added, the U.S. might use Azores bases to protect American lives.⁹

Two weeks after British forces arrived in the Azores, anti-submarine aircraft began operating. British Lancasters, Yorks and Wellingtons, and American Hudson and Flying Fortress bombers flew attack patrols in a 500-mile radius around the islands. The first U-boat kill came on 9 November 1943. Fifty-two more followed, dramatically reducing Allied shipping losses. On 9 December, the first American heavy bomber, a B-17, passed through in what was to be a “limited number” of flights via the Azores.¹⁰

Thus Churchill’s leadership and knowledge of history materially aided the Allied War effort by invoking the oldest active treaty in the world. While we can picture the consternation or amusement in the House of Commons when the prime minister made his surprising announcement, we may also appreciate his resourcefulness and mastery of history. Although the Anglo-Portuguese Alliance may be only a footnote in the annals of World War II, it is another outstanding example of his wartime leadership that helped defeat Nazi Germany.

Churchill’s wartime use of the Alliance also affected future British policy. For example, during the 1982 Falklands War, the facilities of the Azores were once again requested by Britain for use by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.¹¹ Portugal granted the request on the same basis that it had for Churchill thirty-nine years earlier.

Mr. Glueckstein is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to Finest Hour. His “Churchill as Bricklayer” appeared in our previous issue.

Endnotes:

1. Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, vol. 5, Closing the Ring (London: Cassell, 1952), 146-47.

2. Ibid., 147.

3. Joaquim da Costa Leite, “Neutrality by Agreement: Portugal and the British Alliance in World War II,” in American University International Law Review 14: 1 (1998), 189.

4. Neill Lochery, Lisbon: War in the Shadows of the City Light, 1939-1945 (New York: Public Affairs, 2011), 88.

5. Telegram from WSC to President Roosevelt marked “Most Secret and Personal,” 11 June 1943. Churchill Archives Centre, CHAR 20/112/94-95.

6. Closing the Ring, 147.

7. Ibid., 147-48.

8. “Berlin Is Taciturn on Portugal’s Step,” The New York Times, 13 October 1943, 7.

9. “Azores Request Decided in Washington,” Christian Science Monitor, 13 October 1943, 13.

10. “The Azores—Strategic Crossroads of the Atlantic,” 801st Engineer Aviation Battalion in WW2 (http://www.skydozer.com/).

11. “History of the Relations Between Portugal and England: Middle Ages,” Anglo-Portuguese Society, http://bit.ly/VJrl5i.