"Your Excellency the Foreign Minister, the Azores are an inseparable part of the Portuguese Republic's territory. The people will not accept the government selling the Azores. If the government acted on its own and sold the Azores, it would certainly provoke fierce public outrage. The government would then face enormous pressure," President Sidonio Pais said.
He clearly did not wish to sell the Azores, but to avoid angering Germany, he could only shift the responsibility onto Portuguese public opinion.
Wachth frowned, then said, "The German Empire is extremely sincere about this. We can purchase the Azores for three hundred million Marks. The Azores currently have almost no development potential. This price is already very fair."
President Sidonio Pais admitted that Portugal was badly short of money and under immense fiscal pressure. Three hundred million Marks was already an enormous sum for Portugal. Moreover, he believed that if Portugal truly intended to sell the Azores, it could continue negotiating with Germany. That way, they could raise the price even further.
However, Sidonio Pais truly did not want to sell the Azores! It would drag Portugal into the coming great war. If Germany also won the future war, then all would be well enough—Portugal could gain a share of the benefits. But what if Germany lost the war? Portugal, tied to Germany's chariot, would certainly become a target for reckoning by the United States and other nations. Portugal would pay a terrible price then. Sidonio Pais still hoped that Portugal could remain neutral. With the Azores in their hands, they could wait for the best price, or even wait until the course of the war became clear and use them as a bargaining chip to curry favor with the victorious power.
"Your Excellency the Foreign Minister, I need to discuss this with