Manuel de Abreu Ferreira de Carvalho
Manuel de Abreu Ferreira de Carvalho (born January 19, 1893 , Porto , Portugal ; † May 13, 1968 in Lisbon , Portugal) was a Portuguese officer and governor in various parts of the Portuguese colonial empire . When Japan occupied the Portuguese Timor colony between 1942 and 1946 , Carvalho was governor here. Carvalho has received several awards for his service in Africa.
Education and Service in Africa
Carvalho studied at the Colégio Militar, from where he went to an infantry course at the army school. He completed the course in the school year 1912/1913 and in 1915 he received his officer license.
During the First World War, Portugal was an opponent of Germany , whose colony German South West Africa bordered the Portuguese Angola . A second direct front existed between the Portuguese Mozambique and the northern German East Africa .
Carvalho went with the 10ª Companhia Expedicionária to Angola, where he was involved in military operations in the south between 1915 and 1916. In 1916 he was promoted to lieutenant and came to the 7ª Companhia Indígena de Infantaria in Palma in northern Mozambique. Between 1916 and 1918, as a member of the 20ª Companhia Indígena Expedicionária, Carvalho took part in operations against the Germans in East Africa. As a captain he was appointed administrator of the district of Inhambane in June 1921 and in September of the same year Carvalho was appointed commander of the Companhia Indígena de Infantaria a Pé of the Guarda Republicana in Lourenço Marques . In this post he moved in October to the command of the 10ª Companhia Indígena de Infantaria. From December 3, 1926 to 1935, Carvalho was governor of the Quelimane district . In 1936 he returned to Lisbon before he was appointed governor of the Huíla Province in Angola. In 1939 Carvalho received the post of governor of the Benguela province .
Portuguese Timor
In 1940 Carvalho became governor of Portuguese Timor. By this time Japan had already started its war of conquest in East Asia and the Pacific . When the Japanese troops threatened the Lesser Sunda Islands , the Allies offered to also station troops in the area of the neutral Portuguese colony for protection. Portugal refused and planned to move its own troops from Mozambique to reinforce it. The Allies saw their flank endangered and therefore occupied Portuguese Timor with a force of 400 men consisting of Australians and Dutch. Governor Carvalho declared himself a prisoner in order to preserve the appearance of neutrality, while Portugal's dictator António de Oliveira Salazar protested against the occupation by the Allied governments.
On the night of February 19-20, 1942, the Japanese began the invasion. The Australian units in the capital Dili had to withdraw quickly. A guerrilla war began between Allied soldiers and the Japanese army . Partly Portuguese and Timorese supported the Allies. Other Timorese fought on the side of the Japanese.
Until August 9, 1942, the Portuguese administration remained responsible for civil administration in its colony under the Japanese occupation. In Australian military mythology, Carvalho's neutrality has often been questioned. The Japanese didn’t give much thought to the governor’s neutrality. They simply disempowered him by bypassing his authority and cutting the telegraph line to Lisbon . A Japanese memo from June 1942 describes Governor Carvalho as stubborn and uncompromising because he refused to punish Portuguese officials and Timorese servants at the request of the Japanese, and because he supported the " invading army ", as the Japanese called the Allied units. In summary, the governor was seen as a major obstacle to the air war and Japanese defense operations. On June 24, such obstruction led Tokyo to complain to Portugal's dictator Salazar, including a list of hostile acts committed by Portuguese officials and Timorese. But even two months later, the local Japanese administration could not see any change in the situation.
At the end of August there were attacks by Timorese on Portuguese. Some Portuguese and Chinese were killed in the process, causing unrest among the Portuguese population. Japan blamed the incidents on a "group of West Timorese " who fight for the Japanese and want to settle in the east. As a result of the events, Governor Carvalho sent a message to Lisbon with the request to be able to evacuate the population of Portuguese origin to the offshore island of Atauro . But the ship with the answer never made it to Timor and so the plan was not implemented. At least 26 Portuguese civilians were killed in the first six months of the occupation. Including local officials and a Catholic priest.
On October 24, 1942, Portuguese officials and their families (around 600 people) were interned in camps in Liquiçá and Maubara . Only Carvalho and the mayor of Dili were given a reprieve. The last Portuguese were disarmed. The conditions in the camp were poor, food was scarce and the hygienic conditions inadequate due to a lack of water. Although there was a Portuguese doctor who was later assigned two Japanese doctors, there was a lack of medicine, which is why many Portuguese died.
The occupation of Portuguese Timor ended only after the surrender of Japan. On September 1, 1945, Japanese officials met with Governor Carvalho to agree to an end to the hostilities. On September 5, Japan officially declared the return of the colony. Carvalho was given command of an armed Japanese contingent to maintain order. The weapons of the Japanese soldiers were handed over to Portugal. The telegraph connection from Lisbon to Dili was restored on September 12th.
post war period
On December 8, 1945, Carvalho returned to Portugal. There he received the post of inspector for the overseas main administration (Inspeção Superior da Administração Ultramarina), from 1956 he was chief inspector of the authority. After his retirement, Carvalho became an administrator at the Estado da Cabinda Gulf Oil Company . Carvalho died in Lisbon on May 13, 1968.
literature
- Manuel de Abreu Ferreira de Carvalho: Relatório dos Acontecimentos de Timor (1942-1945) . Edições Cosmos e Instituto de Defesa Nacional, Lisboa 2003
Web links
- Dados Biográficos dos Autores ( Memento of January 2, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Instituto da Defesa Nacional
Individual evidence
- ^ Australian War Memorial Transcript
- ↑ a b c d e Universidade Técnica de Lisboa ( Memento of March 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 824 kB)
- ^ L. Klemen: The fighting on Portuguese East Timor, 1942 . 1999-2000
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Álvaro Eugénio Neves de Fontoura |
Governor of Portuguese Timor 1940–1946 |
Óscar Freire de Vasconcelos Ruas |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Carvalho, Manuel de Abreu Ferreira de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Portuguese officer and governor in different parts of the colonial empire |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 19, 1893 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Porto , Portugal |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 13, 1968 |
| Place of death | Lisbon , Portugal |