THE WAR IN SPAIN

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21960, 8 December 1936, Page 13

THE WAR IN SPAIN

Following are extracts from letters on the war in Spain:— S. H. Beck (Rangiorai says: “It is a well-known fact that after the elecnon in February the fascists organised the burning of churches in order to stir up the people against the People's Front, and also organised the assassination of workers’ leaders, which was a daily occurrence. Those who talk about churches being burned forget to : mention that the higher clergy took an active part in the war, using churches as munition dumps. The spires were turned into machine-gun nests, treacherously killing the working people. Furthermore, the eyes of devout Catholics have been opened by such things, and' the Catholic masses —peasants, workers intellectuals, and : middle-class—are united in an iron i determination to wipe out the fascists. The communists have also formed ; organisations to protect churches and other treasures of Spanish art from destruction.” “C. of E “It is perhaps under- i standable that as a Protestant people we should pass by indulgently such trifles as the murder of Catholic priests and the outraging of nuns, but as a democracy we should really censure a Government that obtained its majority fraudulently, viz,, by the deliberate breaking of the voting rooms Py parties ol Reds, where the | popular sympathy was known to be-anti-bolshevik. This Happened notabiy I in Valencia and Cuenca. The British j people pride themselves on sports- ■ raanship, in the matter oi tne Spanish 1 tragedy; ignorance is leading them i imo gross unfairness." “R. 8.”: " ‘A.E.G.’ stales that the tight is between communism and fascism—ne is wrong. in tne tirst place. General Franco is not a fascist, unless all anti-communists are to be termed such. His policy, if he obtains power, will be modelled on that of the government of Portugal, which is anything but fascist, and wh.ch, during its 11 years in omee. has achieved notable results. In the second place. ! your correspondent tails to realise that j the Spanish people have not risen up against the present ‘Government’ in order to place themselves under a dictatorship—they are , lighting for their liberty and their Christian- beliefs against the scourge of communism; to call them fascists is' ridiculous. And to say that the Church is pro-fascist is likewise ridiculous —the history' of the Church in Itah- and Germany during the last few y'ears disposes of that statement. Fascism is opposed to communism, and so is the Catholic Church—but that does not make the Carbolic Church a supporter of fascism. . . . Many correspondents are making this war an excuse to attack I the Catholic Church. Those who are communists are only acting as one would expect—but those who are Christians are acting uncharitably, to say the least. And it behoves these last-named to remember that communism recognises in the Catholic Church the great bulwark of Christianity and of civilisation, and if communism overcame the Catholic Church it would be almost impossible for other religions to exist.” “Ex Catholic”: “A great deal of dangerous reactionary nonsense about the Spanish Civil War is being propagated in your columns by the Rev. P. J. Cooney, W. F. Hallins, and ‘Hispanus.’ The first-mentioned correspondent’s hysterical references to outrages on nuns especially call for correction. This . emotional stuff is what the clergy hab- j dually use to camouflage their ignor- j ar.ee of facts and their reactionary bias. , I must challenge the ReV, P. J. Cooney —and anyone else for that matter —to 1 produce proof of the alleged outvag- [ ing of nuns. It he can produce con- 1 elusive evidence or even circumstantial evidence I shall be impressed. For my' part I will quote the well-known Irish author. Peador O’Donnell, who recently returned from the Spanish trout. In an interview with the ‘New Leader’ on August 28 he said: T could I not discover any authentic instances of atrocities against priests or nuns. 1 talked with a considerable number I of nuns being deported to France, t i Without exception they paid tribute to I i the courtesy with which they had been treated.’ .... In reply to W. F. Hallins. who states that the struggle is between Russian communism and Christianity, I would like to quote "The Times.” London, of August 17: ‘Some are content to describe the civil war as being between fascists and communists or between patriots and r£ds. Such convenient generalisations are misleading; the revolt was purely military in origin: the leaders counted on the Catholic portion of the Right.’ ” Umberto Colonna: “Father Cooney bemoans the destruction of chu'rches bv an anarchical minded mob. but he fails to see that Senor Caballero is not responsible for the existence of such a mob, which is the result and heritage of centuries of church oppression. It is a plain case of the worm turning against its own creator. . . . France in 1902 drove the Church from politics, Spain must do the same, and I hope Father Cooney, Bishop Brodie and every New Zealand Catholic will help in making the Catholic Church of Spain as clean as the Catholic Church in English-speaking countries. The only way to help Spain is by withholding all support from that filibuster General Franco.” (.Subject to the right of reply of “Reader.” this correspondence is now closed. —Ed., “The Press,”] “G.R.8.”: “It is not true to say that Russia is godless, or that she could ever become so. Her children may be pagans, i.e.. without Instruction from organised religion, but the country is not, and never will be. pan-pagan. Religion is a mode of adjustment, an attitude towards life on the part of adults. It is not, and never can be, manifested in childhood. Religious instruction is thus an imposition on children and therefore inherently wrong. In his later attitude towards life the young Russian pagan is as likely to be as religious as his churchtrained New Zealand brother is nonreligious. It is a question of temperament and dess so) individual experience.”