RARITY IN SPAIN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 306, 26 December 1936, Page 17

RARITY IN SPAIN.

BANDS AND MARCHING MEN. :T V | TROOPS SING FOR DIVERSION. : TALAVERA DE LA REIN A. ' '•"Where are the bands, flying flags and marching men ?" asks the newcomer to warring Spain. The flags hang from windows or fly* from the radiator caps of automobiles. The men do most of. their marching in buses and trucks. And the only band heard here recently is the six-piece outfit in Talavera's square, which plays every evening. Parades are few, except for occasional subdued religious jirocessions. Singing, along with talking, however, is one of the great diversions of the troops—particularly of the turbaned or "fezzed Moors from Africa and the blueclad youth of Fascist groups. The Fascists have a hymn which has become as familiar as the ' "Horst Wessel" song in Germany. Whenever a column of Fascists passes in a street, it is almost certain to keep in step by singing its tune, which in parts is reminiscent of that old close-harmony number, "I've Been Working on the t The Moors like to sing at night. The crescendo wails of their desert songs pierce the shuttered windows of bedrooms until far past midnight.