the direction of more decentralization of power.  However, certain
questions arise which the Organic Law does not answer, namely, who
shall control these local administrative and legislative councils?
The same law indicates that the Portuguese central government in
Lisbon, and the "provincial" government in Lourenco Marques will
retain the power to dissolve these bodies whenever they deem it
necessary.  The fact that these local councils v/ill be elected by
the people does not give us any sense of security whatsoever, once
we are told that they can be dissolved by a government whose
officers are not elected but directly chosen by Lisbon.  This is
not a move towards more and more decentralization of power, but
the very opposite:  a more efficient control of the people with
a pretence of democracy.
b)   The Portuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs also pointed
to the fact that the new Law provides for the election of all the
representatives of the African territories in the Territorial
Legislative Councils, instead of the previous method of mixed
elected and appointed representation.
From now on, "all will be elected, when previously
some were nominated", he said, "... and the election will
be made on the basis of a new electoral law, according to
which the people will participate in the election not only
of members of the Legislative Council but also of Tribal
Councils, Municipal Councils, Economic and Social Councils,
the Overseas Council, the Corporative Chamber and the
National Assembly,  The electorate will be considerably
increased, and in March I964 there will be new elections,
based on the new laws and regulations."
The Foreign Minister went on to state that "the intention of these
elections was to elect the members of the various administrative
and political bodies at all levels.
In connection with this, last March the promised elections
took place, in Mozambique, Angola and Portuguese Guinea.  We have
already collected some of the most crucial information concerning
the manner in which these elections were organized and carried out,
as well as the results of the elections, especially in reference
to the Legislative Council.  In Mozambique there were 93*079 persons
who were allowed to register as voters, in a total population of
a little over 7 million inhabitants.  This signifies about \°/o  of
the total population.  But, the number of voters in each district