BRITONS IN SPAIN

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 240, 4 July 1919, Page 8

BRITONS IN SPAIN

WHl' THEY "GET ON" WITH THE SPANISH. (By Walter M. Gallichan, in the "Daily Mail.") During my travels I. have met a number of my compatriots who are making money in Spain. The cause- of their success is not simply business aptitude and industry. There is another essential qualiiication in this country, and that isMhe art of being sympathetic. We have no word in English that conveys that full meaning of that ofton-used Spanish word "gimpalico." It expresses amiability, courtesy, tact, cordiality, appreciation, and other things. I . The Britons who build up big businesses in Spain are eminently eimpatico. They understand their Spanish neighbours, and adapt themselves to the codes and customs of the country. There is a type here that might bo classified as English-Spanish. Theso are old settlers in tho land, who have married Spanish women and become Spanish in their habits and predilections. In every instance known to me these marriages aro successful. A Scottish mining engineer comes to Spain as a young man, gets on in his profession, and marries a girl in the village. He is known as Don Carlos or Don Uduardo. No Spanish tongue could grapple with tlio correct pronunciation or some of tho Scottish or English names. Mr. John Macdonald wisely prints Don juiin oil his visiting card. The very cordial relations between the Scot and "the Spaniard may be noted in all parts of the Peninsula. The ScottishSpanish havo secured some of tho commercial prizes through tho exercise of simpatico. In the north of Spain there is a racial ■affinity between Henry Thompson from Peebles and Pedro Vergara y Gil from Oviedo which inspires a reciprocal confidence and fosters a real triendsliip. . Tl\e use of "sympathy in the bpani«h sense was made significant to me by mi incident in San Sebastian. \n aeroplane was circling aoovo the town, and hundreds of people had come out. of their houses and were gazing up at the unfamiliar object. Ihe shop that I entered was deserted, but iirescntly a woman came in from the street and asked me, with annoyance, what I wanted I replied that I wanted tobacco. "I havo none," she said. I 'pointed to the well-stocked shelves. "I tell you 1 have none, nothing whatever, none at all!" she returned, ami with sundry expressions of irritation she ran back to her friends in the street to look at the aeroplane. Inadvertently I had been rude. I ought to have waited till tho flying machine disappeared from view nnd not interfered with tho good woman's enjoyment of a wonderful spectacle. The Spanish recognise that pleasure is a duty. 1 had roiißhlv broken in at a moment of supreme' interest, with a thoughtless deinn ml for tobacco. . . "It is clear," as they say in Spam, ■ that the Englishman who would open fre<h business must heed the ways and the" prejudices of the Spanish people. Brusqueness is fatal in this land of polished manners. Hustling is not good business form in a land where the temperature is sometimes nearly tropical. It is said f hat friendship does not en--ler into business. This is hardly truo in Spain. Here 'friendliness undoubtedly counts in commercial dealings, and the English business representative of the simnatico typo will meet with genuine kindness and generous hospitality whoreever he goes.