THE BALEARICS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1937, Page 6

THE BALEARICS.

UNDER ITALIAN CONTROL. VISITOR'S OBSERVATIONS. (By MARC T. OREENE.) L<>XlX>.\, January. A year ago T spent some time in the Balearic Islands, and very recently I have had occasion to make another brief visit. In March, llKtti, the inlands, and I'alnia especially, their bright little capital, were one of the tourist centres of the Mediterranean and particularly favoured of British people. You found a verv English atmosphere. There were English pensions, and down on the harbourside in a pleasant spot a typically English tearoom. The Majorca us, always a pleasant folk with something of the old-fashioned Castilian courtesy and kindliness about them, liked the English, nor wa*» there any of the offensive profiteering at the expense of visitors, so annoying from en<l to end of the French Riviera. Jn fact you lived in Palma about a* cheaply as you could do anywhere on earth. Eight shillings a day amply sufficed. But now how sad the difference. You enter the beautiful harbour of Palma and along the sunny waterside you note that every hotel, villa and cafe is closed, shuttered and desolate. There is an atmosphere of dread, an of a place that greatly fears, an atmosphere full of portent. Iu the harbour itself are three Italian destroyers, and between them and the quay small boats with officers constantly come and go. A French destroyer is on hand, too, and outside the harbour a. British cruieer is at anchor, watchfully waiting. Italian 'Planes Overhead. But far more significant is the constant manoeuvring overhead of silver-lined Italian aeroplanes, their aluminium wings gleaming in the Mediterranean sun. All day they perform their evolutions over the town, constantly watched with admiration by the Majoreans, who now and then break forth into frantic cheer*, or. when the 'planes soar low, stand at attention with the Italian Fascist salute. T came to Majorca on a slow French boat from Marseilles. We tied up to the jetty, but were informed that under no circumstances could passengers bound, as I was, across the Mediterranean to Algiers, eo much as step foot upon the wharf. A cordon of Blue Shirt guard* encircled the ship, Spanish officers in khaki arrived, and there was much ceremony, likewise incessant and rather tiresome repetitions of the Fascist salute. The military hat as decreed liy Signor Mussolini was much in evidence, and. indeed, all the Italian type of military equipment.

French ships and those arriving in them are alike regarded askance, especially as the French sailors have developed the habit of jeering as they pass the Italian destroyers at anchor, and sometimes? of making the clenchedfist Communist ealute. The Italians shout l>ack opprobrious epithets and extend the rijrht arm according to the rules and regulations made and provided. The whole exchange, trivial though it may appear, is nevertheless in a way symbolic of the tenseness of feeling , in the Mediterranean at the moment. Meanwhile the Italian aeroplanes zoom overhead and the big British cruiser waits watchfully outside. A Premature Celebration. The day of my arrival was that on which the fnv-t news of the rebel penetration of the outskirts of Madrid reached Majorca. It was, with some exaggeration, declared that the "patriots"'— -"nationallutas" —had taken the capital. Innumerable truck loads of Blue Shirts and khaki-clad boys of 10 or 17, who had little or no idea of what it was all about, tore frantically through tl*p streets of Pal ma. "Viva los Nationalietas! Viva Franco! Viva Fascism!" Ashore I found that often it was necessary to dodge flying trucks and enthusiastic "nationalist!)*." even to stand at attention as armed 'winds, very aggressive and anxious for conflict, passed. T came to the old iirand Hotel, once at this hour of the afternoon full of chattering tourists and gay with its sidewalk "terras*,* , its orchestra and its aperitif-drinkers. What was it now? It was the home of forty Italian aviators, the same ones who had appeared at the moment of the Loyalist landing on Majorca some months ago and driven the force off. something which c«>ul<l not have been done without their aid. according to an American resident 'in I , alma who had seen the whole affair and who was my informant as to prevailing conditions and as to the extent of the Italian influence in the Balearic*. He was also my informant as to the accepted belief in Majorca that a naval and air base here, if not more, has been definitely promised Mussolini, despite denials from Home, Anglo-Ttalinn Mediterranean preservation-of-the-status-quo pacts, or anything else. The Balearic group is. or was at the time <ff my visit a few weeks ago. entirely under Italian control, and few people there have any doubts whatever that it is destined

to remain so.