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    Melikian Collection > Collections > Artworks > Collector's Favorites > Portuguese Anti-British Propaganda


TYPE: Pamphlet
DIMENSIONS: Approximately 33 1/4" x 8 1/4", unfolded
COMPONENTS: Three-fold, double-sided pamphlet
CONDITION: The publication shows scattered foxing, with slight toning and a pencil inscription to the front page, else very good.
NOTES: Very unusual and scarce. The existence and content of this pamphlet is especially surprising given that, while neutral throughout the war, Portugal upheld the 600-year-old Anglo-Portuguese Alliance and later leased naval bases in the Azores to Britain, aiding their anti-submarine efforts.
LANGUAGE
Portuguese
ITEM ID: 4521
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Portuguese Anti-British Propaganda

DATE
Decade: 1940s
Century: 20th (1901-2000)

Anti-British propaganda publication in Portuguese, blaming the then-current U-boat war against British shipping on the harsh measures imposed upon Germany by the British naval blockade during World War I and by the Treaty of Versailles following the armistice.

The cover depicts John Bull, the personification of Britain, holding a vice labeled “Blockade model 1914/18”, as he is squeezed by a larger vice marked with a swastika and labeled “Blockade model of 1939”.

The remaining pages bear 30 color cartoons illustrating the blockade against Germany, the harsh constraints placed on her by the Treaty of Versailles, the resultant economic catastrophe, Germany’s subsequent economic recovery, the isolation of England from the rest of Europe by 1940, the destruction of her merchant shipping by aircraft, U-boats and surface warships, and the hardships faced by English citizens as a result. The series closes by depicting the aid offered to England by America under Lend-Lease, with its attendant shortfalls in lost American shipping.