Salazar Goes Home

Six months ago, Portuguese Dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar took a nasty spill at his summer residence, Sao Joao do Estoril, when a deck chair collapsed under him. Soon after an operation for a blood clot on his brain a few weeks later, he sank into a coma that kept him near death. His government stood by uneasily, waiting for his recovery. By September, the medical prognosis was that he would never be able to resume his duties, and Lawyer Marcello Caetano became Premier.

Last week Salazar, 79, and ruler of his country for nearly 40 years, returned from the hospital to his residence in Lisbon's Sao Bento Palace. There were no stately ceremonies, no cheering throngs. Instead, he arrived unheralded in a police ambulance, to be greeted by two of his old aides. Salazar himself, still partially paralyzed and suffering from seriously impaired speech and perception, is not yet aware that he was replaced as Premier. For his homecoming, the stricken old statesman needed only one piece of luggage: an ancient suitcase, which he is said to have carried when he entered Coimbra University as a student nearly 60 years ago.

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