Quintanilha e Mendonça Dias was appointed captain of the port of
Chinde,
Mozambique, and was also responsible for the
hydrographic survey of its
sandbar and harbour. From 1925 he was
intendant of the government of
Chinde, having also acted as captain of
Cabo Delgado Province and port of
Quelimane (1935). He was also governor of
Niassa Province in 1935, and in charge of the
Zambezia government in 1937. In 1940, he was chief of staff of the Naval Force exercises and the Naval Force of the Metropolis; in 1941-1943 he was involved in the maritime defense of Lisbon, and acting deputy chief of staff and liaison officer with the Ministry of War.
Governor of Portuguese India Later, in Portuguese India, Quintanilha e Mendonça Dias was chief of India's State Marine Services in 1944, as well as chairman of the Board of Directors of Autonomous Portuguese India Navigation Services. He was a member of the state government of the
Council of India, then vice-president of this Council in 1946. On 15 August 1947 British India became independent, which made it difficult to predict the future of the (Portuguese)
Estado da Índia. Three days earlier, Quintanilha e Mendonça Dias was placed in charge of the government of Portuguese India in an interim regime, a position that he would occupy until the end of June of the following year. The office of governor-general was first offered to Gabriel Teixeira, then governor-general of
Mozambique, a man with extensive experience in the East, having been
governor of
Macau from 1940 to 1946. When Teixeira declined the offer, Quintanilha e Mendonça Dias, "[...] an official with colonial experience, able, hardworking, resourceful and skillfully [...]" in the words of the minister of colonies to
António de Oliveira Salazar, was appointed governor-general of the State of India in 1948. Also in 1947, following the
independence of India, the acting governor had an important role to play in the defense of
Goa against the economic
blockade imposed by leaders of neighboring Indian states. The role he played in his attempts to overcome the nationalist movement in Goa has been debated; some claim that he only reaped the benefits of the efforts of the previous governor-general. Soon after its independence, India wanted to start negotiations with Portugal on the fate of the Portuguese
Estado da Índia. One of the most contentious issues was the old right of the
Padroado Português — which allowed the Portuguese to appoint bishops to
suffragan dioceses in what was now independent India. In 1948, the English prelate of Bombay insisted on resigning. Under the 1928 agreement between Britain, Portugal and the
Holy See, this post had alternating between a Portuguese prelate and an English one. Hence, a Portuguese prelate should have been appointed — something that already independent India was unwilling to tolerate. The
Padroado crisis that followed, from 1948-1953, went along with the government of Quintanilha e Mendonça Dias. As a result, the governor-general officially excluded Archbishop Patriarch
José da Costa Nunes,
Patriarch of the Indies — who had celebrated the weddings of both his daughters in 1950 and 1951—from the Council of the State of India (
Conselho do Governo do Estado da Índia), because India accused the Portuguese Padroado of being a political instrument of the regime in Lisbon. The protests of the
Patriarch of the Indies to António de Oliveira Salazar over this maneuver proved fruitless. While he was governor-general, he got involved in the transfer of large sums of money through the
Reserve Bank of India which caused a scandal because of his close links to wealthy businessmen. He also became infamous after being physically attacked in the Governor’s palace by Goan lawyer Bruta da Costa from
Margao, when he was caught eavesdropping on a conversation between da Costa and
Manuel Maria Sarmento Rodrigues in 1952. Governor General Quintanilha e Mendonça Dias had a difficult relationship with infantry major Carlos Alves Roçadas, then chief of the armed forces of the Estado da Índia. The solution, found by the Minister of Colonies in 1950, was to appoint Alves Roçadas as governor of
Cape Verde, another Portuguese-ruled territory. While in India, the then captain-of-sea-and-war (capitão-de-mar-e-guerra) collated a collection of over three hundred old books on Portuguese India and the Portuguese in the East. This collection was acquired after his death by the
University of Chicago Library and is now a part of the Southern Asian Collection of the
Regenstein Library.
Minister of Marine Back to the metropolis, the captain-of-sea-and-war (capitão-de-mar-e-guerra) Quintanilha e Mendonça Dias was the attorney of the Corporate Board by appointment of the Corporate Council and Advisory Council of the Presidency between 1953 and 1958. During that period he was also professor at the Higher Naval Institute of War and acting director of the Institute. In 1958, Admiral Américo Tomás, Minister of the Navy since 1944, was the candidate of the União Nacional to replace
General Craveiro Lopes as presidential candidate in the elections of that year, against
General Humberto Delgado. One of the candidates to succeed Tomás in the Navy was Henrique Tenreiro, the "Fisheries Boss", who had long insisted on the creation of a Ministry or Secretary of State for Fisheries. However Salazar preferred "[...] a man whose political profile walked close to the Tenreiro, while less controversial and most prestigious within the Navy, considering the merits of his naval career and important places that occupied the colonial administration [...] ". Fernando Quintanilha e Mendonça Dias was thus named minister of the navy in 1958. As Minister of the Navy, he supported the Estado Novo regime during the "Abrilada de 1961" or
Botelho Moniz coup. That same year, 1961, saw the beginning of overseas conflicts. According to NATO's naval strategy, of which Portugal was a founding member in 1949, the role of the
Portuguese Navy in the 1950s was essentially to contain the submarine threat of the
Soviet Union in the
North Atlantic. With the outbreak of conflicts overseas, the Navy's attention turned from the "blue waters" of the Atlantic to the "
brown waters" of the African coast. The war, and the coastal geography and climate of Africa, demanded other types of vessels and equipment, compared to those which the navy had at the time. To meet the new requirements, Admiral Quintanilha e Mendonça Dias embarked on an ambitious program to modernize the Portuguese Navy. The French ambassador in Lisbon, Bernard de Menthon, reported to the
Quai d'Orsay that the minister of the navy "[...] sought to see the president of the Council of the need to start the restructuring program as soon as possible [.. .]." In the years 1961-1974 the Portuguese Navy saw the old ships of World War II replaced by 65 new units, including among other classes: monitoring boats (Class Bellatrix and Class Argos (1963)), patrol vessels (class Cacine), corvettes (John Coutinho class), frigates (João Belo class and class Admiral Pereira da Silva), and four new submarines (Albacora class). Most of these ships were built in foreign
shipyards. Only the lack of capacity and urgent need for delivery meant that some vessels had to be built in foreign shipyards, particularly in Spain, France and Germany. In the ten years in which Quintanilha e Mendonça Dias occupied the Navy portfolio, France and Germany, replaced Portugal's traditional ally - England—as political allies and arms suppliers. Of all the new ships, the
Class John Coutinho, designed by naval engineer and
Rear Admiral Roger d'Oliveira, gained international recognition thanks to the quality of the project. Fernando de Quintanilha e Mendonça Dias also played a decisive role in creating the Hydrographic Institute in 1960. He was minister of the Navy until 1968. In the exercise of this office, he was one of the signators of the new Portuguese Civil Code of 1966. He was also the acting minister of Overseas in 1959, and member of the Empire Bar Council until 1969. == Main office held ==