GENERAL FRANCO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 October 1939, Page 3

GENERAL FRANCO

COMPLETE DICTATOR IN SPAIN. Spain is now governed by a complete dictatorship. General Franco, leader of the Nationalist forces who won the recent civil war, has set himself up as Prime Minister with full powers to rule. He has a Cabinet to work with him, but he is empowered to issue laws and decrees without consulting Cabinet whenever such action is warranted by an emergency. Since the close of the civil war, General Franco has been faced with great difficulties in ’ settling the affairs of Spain. Apart from the main disputes which caused the war, the two main parties on Franco’s side have had their own troubles. On the one hand there is the military group which helped Franco in the rising against the Spanish Government in 1936, and on the other hand, there is the Falange Espanola, a political party which is sometimes called the Spanish Fascist Party. General Franco succeeded with the aid of both groups, together with assistance from abroad. He is the head of each party, and he has had a delicate task in keeping the two in agreement. He has now merged both groups into Falangists, and intends to have only one big party, With himself as the head. The future of Spain is truly in the melting-pot. As dictator, Franco has a gigantic job rebuilding the nation after the destruction and death caused by the war, and no one can -say whether or not his complete dictatorship will be a success, or whether he will be able to carry out his policy of “Spain for the Spaniards.” It is feared that Italy and Germany, having helped Franco to win the war, will demand a share in the government of Spain or in her foreign policy. Franco says he will not have any outside interference. Some of the other nations became concerned last month when Spanish troops were discovered digging trenches and building fortifications in the vicinity of Gibraltar. Britain’s guardian of the Mediterranean.