SPAIN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 222, 19 August 1937, Page 10

SPAIN

CATHOLIC SOCIAL GUILD LECTURE.

During his lecture on Sunday evening in St. Patrick’s Hall, ltev. Father J. A. Higgins, S.M., passed the following remarks: Any lecture cn Spain cannot hope to cover all that there is to say about that very distressed country. It would take a series of lectures to deal in any sense adequately with the vast amount of material that is before us. Wo hope then to-night to give some aspects of the Spanish problem that will assist the understanding and will aid the honest mind to appreciate things at their true worth. We wish to make it clear that, apart from some people who are definitely Communist, the greater number of the people outside'of Spain who so strongly desire to uphold the Loyalist Party in. Spain are actuated by a motive that is strongly to their credit.. Please notice that I say that their motive is good: It does not follow that they are wise either in their actions or their beliefs. It is one thing for a man to have a desirable motive or purpose; l is entirely a different thing to assume that anything that happens to suit Ills purpose is good and true and right. The- instinctive sympathy of the people to-day is for anything that they believe to be democratic ;• and the people have been assured that, the Loyalist Government in Spain is democratic. They have been equally assured that the Nationalists, or the rebels as they are called, are not democratic. ine point, then, is not that the people are wrong in their democratic sympathy, but that they have been deceived in believing that the Loyalist movement in Spain is really democratic. We can understand therefore why so many New Zealanders abominate Franco and applaud the Valencia r Government in Spain. And, of course if. Franco is against true democracy ne 18 undesi - able: and if the Loyalists are soundly democratic they should do supported. \ « Now, ever since the first frightful davs of the Spanish civil war, especially after the massacre of-priests anu nuns and lay Catholics slackened it is clear that by far the greater mass of news coming from Spain through the ordinary channels of informatio for this country has come from Madrid Valencia, Barcelona, and tne Basque country, This news has been both martial and civic. , On the other hand, from Salamanca..and Seville from the large and grdwing portion of Spain held and controlled by the rebels or the Nationalists, there, has been onlv meagre military news and practically no information .concerning the civic condition of life m at least ha and probably, two-thirds of all the territory of Spain. . . Not only is this grossly unfair, it is most undemocratic. Justice should force the democrat to demand both sides of a story. But I have not noticed any demand by the people ot this democracy for the full story of the Spanish tragedy. Mark, please, that I am asking only for equal .reports about both sides; I do not desire that the common channels of our daily information shall give us final judgment ns to relative merit or demerit; I ask only for justice as far as submitting to the people the evidence which the people must have if they are to be able to form any sound judgment on SP Note, also, that Ido not thus protest because I favour General Franco. I protest because it is most undemocratic to judge art issue upon the evidence from one side only, and I protest against injustice. It will be interesting to remark that as earlv as March of last year, before the civil war had begun', the London Times which no person can for a moment suspect of being biased in favour of the Catholic Church in Spain or in any other part of the globe, contained the following report from Madrid: “A Spaniard’s flat may be entered and wrecked intentionally or mistakenly by passing demonstrators. . . It he is a shopkeeper, his establishment may be pillaged or burnt down, because his political references are not liked or because somebody has denounced him, to a secret committee. He may. be shot down by a gunman,, some hired assassin, or merely political enthusiast emboldened Try the knowledge that he has nine chances out of ten of escaping unmolested, and a tenth, chance of being pardoned eventually.’ . What a beautifully democratic picture this Times correspondent paints of Madrid! But since the civil war began this kind of news has not been given to the people. Neither have the people been told that before .the civil war there were 50,000 organised Communists in Spain .and twelve times that number of organised anarchists—6oo.ooo. Again we may exclaim : How gloriously democratic! For neither Communism nor anarchy is democratic. It is one of the very remarkable elements of the Spanish problem that democratic people aTe cheerfully willing to behold Russia carry Communism into Spain, and are willing also to see- France assist Moscow in that land. . If Russia were today a true and sound democracy there would perhaps bo no cause for surprise, but Russia is simply nothing ot the kind. Englishmen, both at home and in the colonies, are prepared to see triumph in Spain a force that is destructive the world over of every democratic institution that England arid her Empire holds dear. . But the English people are thus willing only because they have been deceived. At once I can hear hundreds ot voices crying out to me about the Italians and Germans in Spain. Then let me assure every man that there is nothing in the teaching of the Church to declare that Spain is not for the Spaniards. Every ounce of weight in Catholic teaching will defend for the Spanish people even as the Church will uphold England for Englishmen. But it is even. fantastic in grotesque travesty of justice to scream out against Italians and Germans in Spain and at the same time not to condemn Russian and French iniiuence in that land. There has been nothing democratic in the Russian and French interference in Spain. In tlie attitude of England and France there is this to be remembered: The Catholic Church has condemned modern capitalism of which these countries are the last strongholds in Europe. The Christian law in practice destroys modern capitalism. But that also is true of Communism and Christianity; they are incompatible. Therefore. Communism strives might and main to destroy Christianity. That is why the Communists in Spain have so vilely persecuted the Catholic Church; that also is one very grave reason why England and France nre against Franco. For both England and France know full well that, if the so-called Government of Spam wins, Spain will not be a Christian country much longer. They know that if the Loyalists are successful the whole weight of Government power will be against the Christian religion in Spain against that religion which is the condemnation of both modern capitalism and Communism. To forget this, the religious element in the Spanish problem, is to overlook a vital factor. Those who have seen in the Spanish conflict merely econofhic troubles have failed to grasp correctly what is ultimately at stake For ■what is at stake in Snein is Christian-

ity and Christian civilisation. To deny that there are problems in Spain of economics and of social justice would be foolish; but it is simply blinding folly to deny that the Spanish problem is religious in its very heart and core. And the fear of Franco is the fear that lie_ will turn out to be so practically Christian that neither Communism nor modern capitalism will flourish in Spain. Now, it would be optimistic to suppose that Germany and Italy are anxious for Christianity in Spain; it would be equally nonsensical to be blind to the fact that neither Italy nor Germany can afford to see Russia build a, Communist State in Spain. We may have no sympathy for either Nazism or Fascism, but .wekliould have the justice to admit that, if Russia is' going to dabble in Spain and France, too, other nations will also interfere.