The Movement for Freedom in Mozambique - Page 2 5.
inhabitants was to enjoy these rights.  In connexion with this,
the law itself mentions, in passing, that the local authorities
would decide as to who shall vote.  That is to say, the local
governors and their advisors will decide as to who shall be
eligible for the* exercise of the vote.  Judging by what is going
on now, we would have no difficulty in predicting who v/ould be
the most favoured inhabitant out of the three racial communities
now living in Mozambique.  Obviously, it will be the European and
the Asian. Amongst the few African inhabitants who might get the
vote, we would easily predict that those few who can read and
write.  Amongst these it would be especially those very few who
are able to speak Portuguese, whose number, according to very
liberal estimates, is infinitesimal, being less than 10 per cent
of the total population.
NATO Supports Portugal
All of these maneuvers are intended to thwart the efforts
of the African people to gain freedom.  It is important to note
that Portugal enjoys the support of most Western European powers,
either through bilateral agreements or through the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, with the United States as the main supplier
of weapons and funds.  Politically, except for the present
British Conservative Government, there are no countries that are
willing to stand up openly in support of the Portuguese position.
Most of the allies of Portugal in the West hide behind the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization, arguing that this military alliance
is for the defense of the so-called free world against Communism
and not for upholding colonial interests.  When we present facts
conclusively indicating that Portugal does use the weapons given
"under NATO for the suppression of nationalist aspirations in
Africa, the Western allies of Portugal insist on saying that
Portugal is an honourable nation, it cannot divert the weapons
which are for the defense of western Europe into Africa.  At the
United Nations, the United States often said that there was a
written agreement signed by all members of NATO to the effect that
weapons given for use against Communism could not be used for
anything else.  Several African members of the United Nations
directly challenged the United States delegation to produce a
NATO document which Portugal signed, but in vain.  Even assuming
that such a written committment did exist, Portugal could still
be acting within her rights if she insisted, as she always does,
that her African territories are part and parcel of European