SPANIARD’S THREAT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19980, 4 July 1939, Page 5

SPANIARD’S THREAT

ROCK OF GIBRALTAR DESIGNS ON AFRICA LONDON, June 23. As General Franco’s brother-in-law, Senor Serrano Suner, sailed from Cadiz for Naples he addressed an oratorical .threat to Gibraltar, As reported in a Spanish newspaper, Senor Suner, who is Minister of the Interior in Spain, assured the Rock that "the days of its disgrace were numbered.”

A special correspondent of The Times draws attention to the report in a survey of possibilities in Spain. He points out that me recent statements of prominent Fascists have indicated that Spain is beginning to look to Africa.

“While such views are intended to distract attention from economic difficulties, little damage is done,” comments the writer, "but it is more serious when General Franco approves such views, and calls on the Spaniards to resist encirclement by ‘the false democracies.’ ” Touch With Reality Lost

An influential minority believes it is essential to return to peace and economic normality and would accordingly welcome a loosening of the bonds attaching Spain to the Axis. On the other hand, the article continues, a more influential majority, has Lost touch with reality and yielded to the counsels of Italy and Germany, which are stressing the Spanish debt to the Axis. Moreover, a return to monarchy is apparently- indefinitely postponed. The Monarchists have been eliminated from General Franco's entourage.

Spanish Church Loses Ground The Spanish Church has also apparently lost ground. General Franco’s reactions to international events are often at variance with Vatican views.

His attitude is bitterly disappointing to many of his supporters. If his policy severs Spanish commercial intercourse with the West and ties it on to the Spartan systems- of Italy and Germany, there will be a surfeit of austerity, producing the ominous question whether the civil war was suffered for such .an outcome.

Italy’s First Naval Squadron, comprising 100 vessels, will carry out manoeuvres in Spanish waters in July, says the Daily Telegraph, reporting an official announcement from