CONDITIONS IN SPAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 November 1943, Page 4

CONDITIONS IN SPAIN

IMPRESSIONS OF RECENT VISITOR HOSTILITY TO FALANGISTS. PEOPLE DESIRE TO REMAIN AT PEACE. * I have just ended a fairly long forced stay in Spain. The impressions I have brought away with me are limited and fragmentary, but they may help to give some definition to our general picture of the situation of the country, a correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian” wrote recently. One’s first conversations with Spaniards, of whatever class, are astonishing for the frankness with which they talk —in private—of the regime. The Falangists are an exception; they depend on the regime and do not expect to survive it. The rest are not merely non-Falangist but anti-Falangist. They are not necessarily irreconcilably opposed to General Franco, but they are ready to support any movement, except a Communist one, for the ending of the Falange. Even the Requetes, the shock troops of the monarchists, are anti-Falangist.

For the Falangists Franco is the head of the Falange, the “Caudillo” or Fuchier, the only man able to make Spain “one, great, free.” For his nonFalangist supporters he is the brake on the extremist Falangists and, above all, the man who so far has kept Spaih out of the war. The Spaniards did not seem to me to worry over such juridical subtleties as the distnetion between neutrality and non-belliger-ence; the one thing they wanted was to remain at peace. For all that, there would be strong support for resistance to any aggressor. All but the extreme pro-Germans are of the opinion that, even if the order were given for passive acceptance of German aggression, there would be universal and merciless guerilla warfare against the Germans.

PEOPLE & MONARCHY. All but the Falangists regard a new regime as urgently needed. Most Spaniards would apparently tolerate — I cannot shy more—the monarchy at present; it might obviate sanguinary revolution, end the excesses of the existing regime, suppress the Falange, and place Spain once more on the road to liberty. The view of most moderate Spaniards is that Franco would have the resource to step down from his present supremacy to the second place under a king whose arrival he had assisted. But it is doubtful whether the people, who have suffered so much, the innumerable political prisoners, who are suffering morally even more than physically, and the large section of the intellectuals, who are aware of international realities and national needs, would agree to such a continuation of the Franco Government. They may accept the monarchy for the time being, but only because they feel that it is the alternative to Falangism that at present would bring least division among Spaniards. It would be essential that the monarchy should be seen to be genuinely making an end of Falangism FRANCO UNPOPULAR. The Press represented Franco’s tour of Andalusia in the spring as a triumphal progress. But a witness from Seville declared to me that when the Caudillo entered the arena on the day of the great bull-fight shouts of “Franco, Franco!” came from no more than a quarter of the spectators, while three-quarters shouted “Queipo!”--Queipo de Liano, the governor of the province, being regarded as an opponent of the regime. And another observer, in Madrid, told me that on his return there Franco's welcome came more from loud-speakers than from the crowd. In any case, the Spaniards recognise Franco’s service in keeping the country out of the war. In this respect recognition is accorded also in “influential quarters” to another outstanding personality—Count Jordana, who has championed the cause of non-interven-tion in the world war. In doing so he has earned the suspicion of the Falangists. NAZI PENETRATION. , But in spite of the Allied victories, which have so changed the atmosphere in Spain, Germany's position remains strong. The many representatves of the Reich have insinuated themselves into every organ of control and every street, or, rather, every balcony is loaded with Swastikas; their main argument is the denunciation of the “Communist peril.” There is' frequent evidence of satisfaction among commercial and business men at the Axis defeats, but it is often qualified by fears that these defeats may profit not only Britain and the United States but Russia and, consequently, Spanish Communism.

Where Nazi propaganda fails is in its appeal for Spanish pity for the sufferings of the civil population of Germany under the air raids. The Spaniards know the rigours of total war from bitter experience and are not inclined to be extravagently sympathetic with a biter bit. The position of the Allies is strong, even in official quarters, because thej r are keeping Spain alive. Is there any argument more compelling than wheat, petrol, and cotton for a Government short of them? At times when bread grows worse and the petrol ration less, everybody infers that there is tension between Spain and the Allies. TOLERATED BLACK MARKETS.

It is difficult to form an opinion of economic life in Spain after staying only in some of the great cities. There, however, one is struck by the wellfilled shop windows, the amount of traffic, and the busy streets. Only the workers suffer, for these good things are not for them. The prices are pro-

hibitive, and only rationed goods are accessible to the workers. Not .(.hat rationing means equality: all rattened goods are to be had, at much--.hi'gh6r prices, without limit on a; tolerated black market. The prisons ahe so full of political prisoners and foreign' detainees that there is no room for blaqji.. marketeers. The harshness and per- . manence of political repression have roused inextinguishable popular anger. But it is to the interest even of Franquist Spain, the immediate and the long-range interest alike to “kttep in” with the Allies, and it was not surprising to hear recently from bite of the Spanish leaders this definition of the policy of his Government towards London and Washington: “It will offer few courtesies, but .no kicks.”