Hi Teotonio & Gilbert L, I came across the following snippet at http://www.marinha.pt/extra/revista/ra_dez2001/pag16.html in one of my trawls on the web:
“Marcello Caetano era, então, Ministro das Colónias. A sua primeira atitude foi, por sugestão do Prof. Floriano de Melo, goês, catedrático da Escola Médico-Cirúrgica de Goa e deputado pela Índia à Assembleia Nacional, estudar um estatuto especial, distinto do padrão comum da legislação colonial portuguesa.” Roughly translated: "Marcello Caetano was, at the time (i.e. 1946), the Minister for Colonies. His initial approach was, at the suggestion of Prof. Floriano de Melo, Goan, professor at the Medico-Surgical School of Goa and Member of Parliament for (Portuguese) India in the National Assembly (of Portugal), to study a special statute, different from the standard model of the Portuguese colonial legislation." Therefore, it does appear that Dr. Froilano de Mello (as you can see, spellings differ for the same person) did have an influence in the Portuguese Parliament in altering the status of Goans, contrary to what Teotonio had written way back. The Portuguese article, in paragraphs prior to the one above, states that the population of the territories comprising the Estado Portugues da India, of a little over 600,000 inhabitants, *were all Portuguese citizens in the eyes of the Law*. Also, the government and the administration of the Estado was carried out by Goans, many of them graduates of universities of Lisboa, Porto and Coimbra. The last sentence above confirms what B. K. Bohman-Behram (1955) had written earlier in his book, “Goa and Ourselves”. The naval magazine of Dec 2001 has a number of articles on Goa and India. Regards, Gabriel de Figueiredo. Melbourne – Australia. Find local movie times and trailers on Yahoo! Movies. http://au.movies.yahoo.com
