RATIONED MADRID.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 217, 12 September 1940, Page 5

RATIONED MADRID.

THE NAZI SHAD(Jw. "BRITAIN OUR LAST HOPE. , ' (By Air.) LONDON, August 14. In Madrid to-day the cigarette ration is 40 per week, but for men only. Women do not qualify for any ration. Bread is scarce, unleavened, and mostly bran, according to an Englishman recently returned to England from Spain. He described life in a Spain upon which the shadow of the swastika is

falling. Coffee is undrinkable, string unobtainable. Petrol costs nearly 10/ a gallon, newspapers are pro-Nazi, and I>ostage stamps are used as currency. He declared that the man in the street was indifferent to the anti-British political propaganda instigated l>y Serrano Suner, secretary to the "Falange" and brother-in-law to General Franco. The poster "Gibraltar Iβ Ours!" which adorns almost every public building makes the average Spaniard shrug his shorilders. He has scant reepect for the Italians and smiles contemptuously when told that they "won the revolution for him." He saw the Italians in action. On the other hand he respects, without liking—and with some fear— the Germane. And he appreciates the aims for which Britain is fighting. More than one Spaniard has said when he was sure official ears were not listening: "Britain is our last hope."