CORRESPONDENCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 219, 16 August 1937, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE

SPANISH RELIEF COMMITTEE. (To the Editor.) Sir,—Having received no reply from Mr B. J. Barnao in reply to our letter of the 3rd August, in regard to his address on the Spanish turmoil, we are led to assume that he lacks substantiation of his facts. We also note the Welfare League’s entry into the discussion and wonder if Mr Barnao by any chance would be represented by that august body; if such is the case we can only say they have lamentably failed in their mission and subject matter to appease our desire for the information sought. The attempt of the Welfare League to be broadminded and fair in its attitude towards General Franco did not come exactly as a surprise to us; on the contrary, we would have been greatly surprised, knowing the league’s makeup and its political philosophy, had it supported the present Spanish Gov- , emment in its struggle to crush the rebel leader and his legions of foreigners. What we are concerned about is • the correctness of the position, and we say that the remarks of the league in the main are definitely incorrect. It says the present Government seized power by revolt against the elected Government of 1934. That is not so. The only open revolt was by the Asturian miners when 30,000 revolutionaries were imprisoned by the Gil Robles Government and who were immediately released when the present Government took office. The 1936 elections were staged by the reactionary parties and brought about their own undoing. The Left Wing of the present Cortes is composed of 81 Left Republicans, 98 Socialists, 16 Communists, and other Left groups 73, making a, total ot 268 seats against the reactionaries 205. These figures explode the supposedly overwhelming evidence mentioned' by the Welfare League that the present Government is composed ot Communists and Anarchists who established a reign of terror m Madrid and elsewhere. Then the help from Russia is another illusion. The Soviet Union of Russia as a signatory to the NonIntervention Covenant has sent no volunteers, guns, tanks, or planes *o Spain; she certainly hns sent food to feed the hungry people, and if that is a crime, we applaud her action, in any other country outside of Spain, Fascist countries included, under a specific code of law General Franco long ago would have been treated .as an arch-traitor, guilty of high treason and shot, and one of the curious contradictions of the civil war in Spam that the Welfare League speaks of is that, instead of General Franco being tried for high treason, he himself is asking for belligerent status to set up as the all-highest in Spain, and should he succeed it will be the greatest blow to democracy and constitutional government of all timeWhen we realise that the present constitutionally elected Government of Spain is denied its due legal right by international law to import munitions for its own protection, and when we know definitely that the rebel leader is openly receiving men, munitions, and money from Mussolnini and Hitler, is not the question odious when the Welfare League asks why we condemn Franco and support tho Loyalists. Lovers of freedom and democracy with an urge in their souls must support the Spanish Government. May we ask the Welfare League why all tho trades unions, and workers’ organisations throughout the world are supporting the Spanish Government and the re- , actionary Governments are fraternising with Franco? With your permission, sir, in conclusion we would quote a few extracts briefly from one of many authoritative sources regarding the Spanish turmoil. A document issued by the governing body of the College of Lawyers in Madrid says: “We wish our appeal, the appeal of the men of law, may find an echo and support among our colleagues the world over, and among the cultured in highly civilised countries, for human solidarity is universal. As opponents of Fascism through the profound conviction of our democratic ideals, we must declare that we wish our appeal to reach the thinking multitudes ot those countries where the Fascist reI gime holds sway. It must be made plain that Spain is suffering from a military revolt whose object is the defence of old privileges and archaic institutions. making a last and outrageous effort to divert 'Spaniards from the normal development and progress which would turn Spain into a modern country. We ask for the moral support of the world against this wave of ancestral barbarism which is invading Spain.” Tho watchword of the rebels, plainly to be seen in the printed instructions found on some of their leaders who fell into Loyalists’ hands, are extermination and terror. These instructions not only demand that the leaders and workmen belonging to the Left organisations are to be executed without mercy, but also the members of their families in order to create a panic. Although in a further document we wish to convey to the world in greater detail the horror and barbarity of this movement against which the Spanish nation is fighting for its liberty and its life, we appeal from our hearts to world opinion that it should Isolate the rebels who have no right to the support or the sympathy of any people who call themselves civilised. —We are. etc.. LOCAL SPANISH RELIEF COMMITTEE.