"LIBERTY WILL PREVAIL"

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXX, Issue 13671, 19 June 1942, Page 6

"LIBERTY WILL PREVAIL"

A REFORMED DEMOCRACY Spanish President In Exile Voyage of 441 Days Dr Xiceto Alcala Zamora, first President of the Spanish Republic, has come out of many vicissitudes and a voyage of 441 days to make a new home in South America, confident that "liberty will prevail, but liberty reorganised, and democracy reformed," writes a correspondent of the "Christian Science Monitor" from Buenos Aires.

Blaming disorganisation and inefficiency on the part of parliamentary regimes for the rapid aggressive strides made by "Red and Black fanaticisms." Dr Zamora foresees a rebirth of virile democracy in the hands of freemen again alert and self-disciplined.

Dictatorship is ruled out by this man whose face and figure record the hardships and mental struggles imposed by these times on refugees of high and low estate. Himself cast adrift by the titanic current of world upheaval which first struck Europe in Spain, he clings to his faith in the ultimate triumph of freedom over despotism. Dr Zamora received me in the Hotel Savoy on the morning he was preparing to move to a private house. In his face can be read an epoch of human history. It is a face cast in classic Spanish lines. Yet a deep sadness has taken from it the sparkle and fire associated with Spain of other years. Dr Zamora tells of his hardships as an evidence of the times through which the world is passing, more than as personal experiences. Yet the memory is still vivid of months spent in steerage on ships of refuge as he sought to find a new world and a fresh start.

Many Days on Ships

The story of his wanderings is symptomatic of the times, as well as being an intense real-life drama. In five ships his often interrupted voyage from Marseilles to Buenos Aires kept him a total of six months as a third-class passenger. For more than four months his ship lay at anchor within view of the forbidden city of Dakar. During other months he lived with villagers near Dakar. At no time was he permitted to enter the French colonial city, the nearest sea and air base across th.e Atlantic from Brazil. Whatever concessions the Nazis may be forcing from Vichy in Dakar were not exposed to his view. Nor does Dr Zamora show a disposition to discuss such matters. Several times he emphasised that he is trying to leave the field of controversy where he has occupied a position of great pressure for many years. He restricted his remarks on world issues to general terms, but in those terms his stand is given as solidly on the side of human freedom.

With him in his new home are two sons and two daughters. Senora Alcala Zamora passed on in France after the family had left Spain within 10 days of the outbreak of civil war.

Helped by Petain Marshal Petain of France person-

ally interceded on Dr Zamora's behalf during his long wanderings. Dr Zamora left Marseilles on November 14, 1940, after sojourning in Unoccupied France since the German conquest. The first ship. Alsena, took him to Dakar, but as he was not permitted to land and there was no available passage elsewhere from there, he returned after four months to French Morocco.

Having lost most of his property in Spain, the former President's travels were complicated by a lack of ready cash. Like thousands of other refugees, he was reduced to harest necessities. It was during this period that fc.e returned to the neighbourhood of Dakar, still expecting passage to America. Illness and the theft of his slender purse made this the low ebb of his journey.

Then it was that Marshal Petain made it possible for Dr Zamora to return the second time to French Morocco. From there after some months he found passage in a Portuguese ship, the Quanza. bound for Havana.

Arrived in Cuba, Dr Zamora experienced his first lifting of the dark clouds that had hung over his steps. Cuba revived his hopes of finding a new life and new activity. The final stage of his journey came in a Swedish ship, the Hernia Gorthon. A carrier of cargo, she took 28 days for the passage from Havana to Buenos Ayres. Seeks Field of Work

As you talk with Dr Zamora you find him visibly trying to shake off the past with its disappointments, sorrows and bad physical effects. Despite his best efforts to respond to the warmth of his new surroundings, he smiles with difficulty. But he does smile a fleeting smile at times. America already has done that much for him.

As for the future, Dr Zamora says he asks nothing more than "Any work I am able to do."

Already he is writing occasional articles. He plans to lecture. Although he is a brilliant lawyer, and Buenos Aires is much given to legalities, he did not indicate an intention of concentrating in that field. Gifted with, a strong sense of the historical, Dr Zamora during one of the heated episodes of his career in Spain kept his record clear by an interesting device. This incident was told to me by someone who knew of it at first hand. That was in the midst of the controversy within the Spanish Republic over executions by court-martial on political charges. Some 35,000 had been arrested, and many of them were held as long as 15 months. In a strnog speech Dr Zamora protested against summary executions. Then,' to safeguard his position and to prevent a distortion of the historical facts, he sent one copy of the speech to be placed in a safe deposit box in Paris. Another copy was entrusted to a friend in Spain. Largely as a result of the stand taken by the President, the Supreme Court reviewed the decisions of the court-martial.

Constitutionally opposed to extremes of right or left —as lie reminded me during the interview —■ Dr Zamora attempts to tread the middle of the road, including somewhat to the right. In the process he has not won the ardent support of either side in the Spanish struggle.