SPANISH ATTITUDE

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21232, 1 October 1940, Page 2

SPANISH ATTITUDE

RETARDING HARMONY SOUTH AMERICAN RESENTMENT The bonds of democracy are stronger than those of race, says an article in the Christian Science Monitor—this is the reply of South Americans to Spanish criticism of modern Pan-American trends confirmed at Havana. There is considerable resentment here at Nationalist Madrid having joined in the propaganda campaign of the Rome-Berlin axis to retard an era of harmony and security by attempting to stir antagonism between Anglo-Saxon and Latin members of the New World confraternity. The hand of Rome is detected in : the Spanish attitude. There is a familiar ring about the reports now coming from Madrid that Argentina is heading southern opposition against the United States. It has long been the custom of Buenos Aires correspondents of Italian newspapers to send colourful despatches about the Argentine attitude toward the United States and Pan Americanism. The quotations, editorially adorned, are now coming back from Madrid as well as from Rome. Some Latins believe that Nationalist Spain is not a mere passive associate of the increased totalitarian interest in American continental developments. It has been queried whether Franco j has received some German-Italian j promises of colonies in the western i hemisphere. Such a transfer is un- | likely in the face of the Monroe Doc- ! trine. South Americans point out that | the assumption of an imperial complex by Nationalist Spain will make it most difficult to restore harmonious Hispano-American relationships. Franco and the South Americans Unofficially Franco has been told in many ways that Pan Americanism means more to them than HispanoAmericanism. Spain has never been very favourable to the Pan American movement, its greatest obstacle to the special influence to which it believed itself entitled on this continent. Spain seems not to understand that this movement is imposed by common necessities arising from a geographical position and regional ideals gaining more , consistency with political, economic, i and social progress. Nationalist Spain has been told by j some Latin Americans that it is wast- j , ing its time if it hopes to create dif- • ferences between North and South 1 America. One source summarised the situation when it said that a continental conscience has been formed I despite racial differences and that a | common outlook was steadily forming a continental culture.