Armistice in Portugal

A cover from Portugal with a stamp honouring the soldiers of Ww1 on the centenary of Armistice ! 

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• Issue Date: 10.08.2018
• Designer: Atelier Design&etc / Hélder Soares

Portugal remained neutral during the initial years of ww1. But there was growing hostility towards Germany , because Germany blocked ships going to UK by using its u- boats . UK was the major market for Portuguese products . So ultimately Portugal joined ww1 in March 1916 to safeguard its commercial interests and also its African colonies from German and British occupation . Portugal suffered heavy casualties in the war. The war cost Portugal 8,145 dead, 13,751 wounded and 12,318 prisoners or missing. At sea, 96 Portuguese ships were sunk (100,193 tons) and 5 Portuguese ships damaged (7,485 tons) by German submarines. Portugal heaved a sigh of relief when the war ended on 11-11-1918 .

“The Past is brought to life on these stamps, forging a relationship with us, who contemplate it from the perspective of the Present. After all, this relationship marks the con uence of the Truth of what happened with theSense that time has given it. And it is this interweaving of what it has given us to Learn that we manage to retrieve elements for forging our Futureand rea rm it as a Project in progress.

It means honouring the memory of Portugal’s involvement in the Great War and doing justice to the tenacity and altruism of those who marchedbeneath our ag. It means going beyond a mere abstract commemoration of a particular day. It means giving weight and value to the Transmission of this memory, lest we lose ourselves altogether.

So listen to the lesson, perhaps the greatest lesson of all, that this Centenary has to teach us: nothing is a given; the limits of what makes us human are vulnerable; civilisation is a matter of uncertain, faltering triumphs; fragile in essence. And let us reassert the value of Responsibility.

Long reign a time of wine and bread and owers. A time when the earthis made fertile with Hope.”

- José Alberto de Azeredo Lopes 
   Ministry of National Defence