SPAIN’S PLIGHT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 January 1941, Page 7

SPAIN’S PLIGHT

POVERTY GRIPS COUNTRY NO RELEASE FROM PRE-WAR CONFLICTS. I i CONDITION OF POPULACE DEPLORABLE. j ! The condition of the Spanish people j ‘.ouches one's heart, writes Ruth A. i Steiger in the "Christian Science Mom- ' >.or.” j Two years of destructive civil war 1 have left the country not only >mi poverished but chained to tile .Axis. ■ whose help Generalissimo Francisco ; Franco needed in order to win. The end of hostilities brought no release I from Spain’s pre-war conflicts. The ' people are disheartened, and distrustj ful of everyone, including their govI ernmerit. j Living costs are several times higher I than before lite civil war. Products which the Spanish people need for themselves, they must do without because they are exported to ■ Germany An example is olive oil. ■ I Everything is rationed, but in instif-’-jticient quantities and irregularly, and ; many things which we consider csseni tial just cannot be had. There is practically no white flour, milk is ‘ available only for babies and expect- ’ am mothers. A housewife may buy a bar of laundry soap on her ration card, but she doesn’t know how long she has to make it last. Anyone who has the means to i maintain a decept living standard tries > to buy beyond the limits established tby the rationing system. /And this is ' possible if one is able to pay literally i 10 limes the usual price, for merchants t regularly withhold a part of their ■ stock for this illegal sale. The indi- • vidual is helpless to order anything • from abroad, since no money is allow- . ed to leave the country. i BREAD IS TASTELESS. J Bread—a basic food to the European , j —is very dark and tasteless. We were , J told by friends who are long residents ’ of Spain that it includes numerous! I unsavoury substitute ingredients. , Against the very high cost of livI ing the salaries paid working people! seem a pittance: , A street-car motorman or conductor gets only 300 pesetas a month (about ' 24 dollars). A telephone operator gets half as much. Consequently they must have an additional means of livelihood To escape the oppressing ■ dread of starvation and the terrific I struggle to exist, some of the poorest people even commit minor crimes in i order to be housed and fed in gaol. i Gasoline is also scarce, but restrie- ' tions on gasoline have become so 1 common in Europe that Lisbon with j its hundreds of motor-cars and taxis i hurrying in all directions, seemed more strange than Barcelona with its l outmoded, horse-drawn cabs. It was j one of these which conveyed us from j station to hotel, rumbling slowly ' through the streets. We pounded on I tlie window, pantomiming to suggest i greater speed. The only response was I a frown and the horse changed from ' a walk to a very slow trot, to which ‘ he must have been specially trained. I A 10 or 15-minute ride in this way ' cost us two dollars. They charge not ’by distance but by time, we afierI ward heard. No wonder the cabby didn’t like the suggestion that he speed up. When we paid our cab driver we received our change in postage stamps. No coins are in circulation. They ! have been replaced by stamps, and, !in some places, even by street-car tickets. The Franco Government has promised repeatedly to correct this situation by putting coins into circulation, but the promises have not been kept. The people regard them as one j of the Government's feeble attempts to still increasing dissatisfaction. BUS TRAVEL A TRIAL. Exhausted and disordered by two years of devastating war. their resources lapped, and their policy bent to meet Nazi requirements, distrusting j their own Government, it is little wonder that the Spanish lack the will to rebuild their country. Roads in a state which wouldn't be tolerated in a normal country go un- ; repaired. We had to travel three , times by motor-bus over the road ' from the city of Barcelona to the airport. By the third trip we were as S alert as the chauffeur to the worst I * potholes in the road At one pointl ■ he invariably took a wide swerve i clear oil the street and across a park- I f way io avoid some barbarous-looking t caverns The skill v.ith which he L

; swung his iong car in and out around I two-wheeled donkey carts loaded with j hay—never slackening his speed -was . evidence of practice. The traveller tn Spain feels uneasy ! —not because the people themselves are unfriendly, out because he fv< Is I unprotected, against, the unseen ilmtigh { controlling hand <d Germany It is i unsafe !•> discuss politics m public places Nazi cars ..r<? übiquitous But tin: Spani. rds ar< nut happy to 'be chained to Herr Hitler' v. ar : churmi In contrast to the enmity ; winch had bloeised our path at the French-Spanish frontlet we found no unil:i >s. y HIS the port ■ f the Spanish ■ people in fact, those We met sci'iiii'd ‘ eager to I'iase the Ulif.iVoUHibk’ ;injji'essiun i.f the.: i amtry which <ar ' dill ICUllieS might h.i’.e given At id 1 wt> saw an airline eonm.mj delay the departure of tin ;ier<u>iane : : Lisbon Hl ußlrr to UCC /mm- ..n-.t« tvo, :-;e:;i-h dip! malic aides wlu>m the c'h r:r.>ns hod dvtamed at tile border Th. t Spam emdd r-.w . th-. tarj aid to the Axis seem? iut of the l :.d it a. as evt n th< . si;. :: of ' ”.:.v mat •. . ■ten.l : ■ . .■ n • lid ’<r pli'.’.iuo '■ ■ '!.!.■. o , r ain . cause revolt