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Pedro Teotónio Pereira (
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
, Mártires, 7 November 1902 –
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
, 14 February 1972) was a
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Por ...
politician and
diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internat ...
. He played a decisive role for the Allies, in drawing
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...
with Portugal into a neutral peninsular bloc during World War II.


Background

He was a son of João Teotónio Pereira, Jr. (
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
, 1869 -
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
, São Domingos de Benfica, 1948), administrator of the Companhia de Seguros Fidelidade, and wife Virgínia Hermann von Boetischer (
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
, Santa Engrácia, 1871 -
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
, 1969), paternal grandson of João Teotónio Pereira (1832–1916) and wife Clara Sobral (1840 -
Freixo de Espada à Cinta Freixo de Espada à Cinta (), sometimes erroneously called Freixo de Espada Cinta (an archaism), is a municipality in the northeastern region of Portugal, near the border with Spain, along the Douro River Valley. The population in 2011 was 3,780, ...
, Fornos, 1910) and maternal grandson of the Prussian Maximilian August Hermann von Boetischer, an
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering th ...
, linked to the installation of the
telephone A telephone is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into e ...
s in
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the ...
, and wife Maria José da Silva. His older brother Luís Teotónio Pereira was also a
politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
.


Early career

Teotónio Pereira, graduated in Mathematics by the
University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, th ...
. After his graduation, with the aim of following his family tradition in the insurance business, he made post-graduation studies in the actuarial science in Switzerland. In his youth we was an active member of the Lusitanian Integralism and very close to António Sardinha. His expertise in life insurance and actuarial science caused him to be called by Salazar to reform the Portuguese social security system. At the end of World War I, a new legislation on compulsory social insurance had been introduced in Portugal, but the lack of scientific studies caused the outcome of the experience of the Portuguese first Republic to be weak. Together with Salazar, Teotónio Pereira launched new legislation and established the foundations of the Portuguese Social Security system under the Estado Novo. He was one of the main builders of the corporativist politics of the Portuguese Estado Novo dictatorship. He served as Sub-Secretary of State of Corporations and Social Welfare, reporting directly to Salazar, and he enacted extensive legislation that shaped the corporatist structure and initiated a comprehensive social welfare system. This system was equally anti-capitalist and anti-socialist. The corporatisation of the working class was accompanied by strict legislation regulating business. Workers' organisations were subordinated to state control, but granted a legitimacy that they had never before enjoyed and were made beneficiaries of a variety of new social programs. Nevertheless, even in the enthusiastic early years, corporatist agencies were not at the centre of power and therefore corporatism was not the true base of the whole system. He also served as Minister of Commerce and Industry (1936–1937). Unlike Britain, Portugal supported Franco from the outset. In January 1938, Teotónio Pereira was appointed by
António de Oliveira Salazar António de Oliveira Salazar (, , ; 28 April 1889 – 27 July 1970) was a Portuguese dictator who served as President of the Council of Ministers from 1932 to 1968. Having come to power under the ("National Dictatorship"), he reframed the r ...
Special Agent of Portuguese government near
Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War and thereafter ruled over Spain from ...
's government during the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
and achieved immense prestige and influence. Later, in April 1938, he officially become Portuguese Ambassador to Spain, where he remained throughout World War II. Following Salazar's policies Teotónio Pereira supported Franco from the very beginning but assumed the complicated role of fighting the influence of both Italians and Germans.


World War II

The prestige and the influence that he gained with the Spanish authorities proved to be of great support to allies during World War II. His role as ambassador the war has been praised both by scholars and his fellow ambassadors. Scholars have used adjectives like brilliant, shrewd and observant and
Samuel Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood Samuel John Gurney Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood, (24 February 1880 – 7 May 1959), more commonly known as Sir Samuel Hoare, was a senior British Conservative politician who served in various Cabinet posts in the Conservative and National g ...
, the British ambassador in Madrid from 1940 to 1944, described in his book "Ambassador on Special Mission" Teotónio Pereira as an ally and a man of "outstanding ability and distinction". Hoare wrote that Teotónio Pereira gave him his help and friendship from the day of Hoare's arrival to Madrid in May 1940. The testimonial's from Carlton Hayes and Samuel Hoare would later become very useful to Theotonio Pereira, when while he was placed as ambassador in Brazil and was unduly accused by the press of having been close to the Nazi's. Among other things, Teotónio Pereira, shared with Salazar a profound attachment to the historic
Anglo-Portuguese alliance The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance (or , "Luso-English Alliance") is the oldest alliance based on known history in the world that is still in force by politics. It was established by the Treaty of Windsor in 1386, between the Kingdom of England ( ...
, and during the war years in Madrid, Teotónio Pereira proved himself a good friend of Britain. Mr. Carlton Hayes, then his American colleague in the diplomatic corps wrote of him in his book, ''Wartime Mission in Spain'': "His strong patriotism was at all times evident as was also his loyalty to the historic Anglo-Portuguese alliance. He recognized, as fully as we did, the danger both to Portugal and to the Allied cause in any Axis intervention in Spain or in any unneutral collaboration of Spain with the Axis. Though he distrusted Serrano Súñer and heartily disliked the Falange, his long and close association with other influential advisers of General Franco and with large segments of the Spanish people stood us, as well as himself, in good stead.... In his constant endeavor to draw Spain with Portugal into a really neutral Peninsular bloc, he contributed immeasurably, at a time when the British and ourselves had much less influence, toward counteracting the propaganda and pleas of our enemies". Later in the same book, Hayes wrote of a "prodigious number of refugees", who began pouring into Spain in November and December 1942. Most were Frenchmen, half starved, without money or clothes, and Hayes wroye of the decisive intervention of Teotónio Pereira in favour of 16,000 refugees French military refugees who were trying in 1943 to get from Spain to North Africa in order there to join the Allied forces. In that group were also include Polish, Dutch and Belgian most of whom were soldiers or would-be soldiers. According to Hayes, the Poles in particular were destined to perform brilliant feats in the later Italian campaign. In July 1945 he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Spanish
Order of Charles III The Royal and Distinguished Spanish Order of Charles III, originally Royal and Much Distinguished Order of Charles III ( es, Real y Distinguida Orden Española de Carlos III, originally es, Real y Muy Distinguida Orden de Carlos III) was establ ...
, the most distinguished civil award that can be granted in Spain, restricted to 100 Spanish citizens and very seldom awarded to foreigners. He considered himself a "faithful servant of Salazar" and is remembered as one of the main accusers of
Aristides de Sousa Mendes Aristides de Sousa Mendes do Amaral e Abranches () GCC, OL (July 19, 1885 – April 3, 1954) was a Portuguese consul during World War II. As the Portuguese consul-general in the French city of Bordeaux, he defied the orders of Antón ...
.


Later career

He later became Portuguese ambassador in Brazil (1945–47), ambassador in Washington (1947–50), Ambassador to the Court of St. James, London (1953–58) and again in Washington (1961–63). When Teotónio Pereira was named the Portuguese ambassador to Washington, there were protests from members of the Portuguese-American community, who considered him to be an "extreme nationalist.". As Portugal’s plenipotentiary in Washington he co-signed with President Truman, on 24 August 1949, the document implementing the
North Atlantic Treaty The North Atlantic Treaty, also referred to as the Washington Treaty, is the treaty that forms the legal basis of, and is implemented by, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949 ...
. He was board member of the
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation ( pt, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One ...
. While ambassador in Washington, in 1963, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease which forced him to request an early retirement. When Salazar became unable to govern, the President of the Republic, Américo Thomaz, who had the constitutional competence to choose a replacement, thought that Theotónio Pereira would have been “the most suitable personality to succeed Dr. Salazar, if his health had allowed it", as he wrote in his memoirs.


Sailing enthusiast and founder of Tall Ships' Races

In 1951, while he was ambassador in Washington, Teotónio Pereira invited the Australian Navy official
Alan Villiers Alan John Villiers, DSC (23 September 1903 – 3 March 1982) was a writer, adventurer, photographer and mariner. Born in Melbourne, Australia, Villiers first went to sea at age 15 and sailed on board traditionally rigged vessels, including ...
to get on board of the schooner Argus, a fine cod fishing four-masted schooner, and to record the last commercial activity ever to make use of sails in ocean-crossings. Villiers ended up publishing a book, "The Quest Of The Schooner Argus: A voyage to the Grand Banks and Grenland on a modern four masted fishing schooner". The book was a great success in North America and Europe and was later published in sixteen languages. The Quest of the Schooner Argus made news on the BBC, in the main London newspapers, the National Geographic Magazine, and the New York Times. In 1953, Teotónio Pereira, together with Bernard Morgan, inspired by the idea of bringing young cadets and seamen under training together from around the world to compete in a friendly competition, organized the first edition of the Tall Ships' Races that took place in 1956 from Torbay – south of England – to Lisbon. It was also due to the perseverant mediation of Teotónio Pereira that, in 1961, Portugal bought the Sagres the school ship of the Portuguese Navy.


Marriage and children

He married Isabel Maria van Zeller Pereira Palha (
Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
, Santa Engrácia, 26 October 1903 –), daughter of Constantino Nicolau Pereira Palha and wife and cousin Maria do Patrocínio Pereira Palha van Zeller, of a family of large landowners, and they had three children.


Published works

* * *


Explanatory notes


Sources

* Almeida, Joao Miguel, "Correspondência política entre Oliveira Salazar e Pedro Teotónio Pereira (1945-1968)"- Círculo de Leitores : Temas e Debates : Instituto de História Contemporânea, 2008, * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


References


External links


Pedro Teotónio Pereira's genealogy in a Portuguese Genealogical site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pereira, Pedro Teotonio Portuguese diplomats 1902 births 1972 deaths Government ministers of Portugal People from Lisbon Portuguese people of German descent University of Lisbon alumni Ambassadors of Portugal to Spain Ambassadors of Portugal to Brazil Ambassadors of Portugal to the United States Ambassadors of Portugal to the United Kingdom