SPANISH CONFLICT

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 173, 19 April 1937, Page 3

SPANISH CONFLICT

Italian Aid For Rebels STORY OF “VOLUNTEERS” Preparations for Italian, reinforcements to Spain are being continued, with great vigour in different parts of the country, states an Italian correspondent of the “News Chronicle.” Recruiting offices are established in towns and villages throughout Italy and little attempt is made to hide their activities. A fair number of men who are sent out to Spain are genuine volunteers. They accept service, however, not because of any desire to light for Fascist ideals, but because they would otherwise be unemployed. Many of them are men who have recently returned from Abyssinia and fear demobilisation with no prospect of a job. So they enrol for Spain. A few months ago Italian volunteers for Spain were offered substantial remuneration. In one Piedmontese township the terms last November were as follows: 1006 lire (about £11) paid over to their dependants at once; a daily pay of 3* lire (about 9d.) plus active service allowances. These are considerable sums for jobless Italians, or even for employed peasants or labourers. Recruit’s Family. The terms, however, have steadily worsened. The lump sum paid over to the recruit’s family—without which no one would volunteer —has declined to anything between 206 and 400 lire 45/- to 90/-). The recruit himself now gets only the standard army pay. Accordingly, the number of genuine volunteers has fallen and men are now chosen from the ranks of the regular army or militia. Here again the dreaded prospect of demobilisation is inducing many to accept service in Spain without extra pay. ” In some cases, however, entire units of the Blackshirt militia are simply detailed for Spain, the men being given the opportunity to “contract out” before the assembled battalion—a decision which few have the courage to make. Apart from infantry, segular army men from mechanised units and airmen are still going out. Whether they have any opportunity of refusing is not known, but in any case the term “volunteers” could, in their case, only be applied by stretching the meaning of the word. The relatives of the men who fight for Franco are not often told the truth. The parents of a young airman received a notice that their son had been killed in Abyssinia. But only a few days earlier they had received news from him, sent by a roundabout route, telling them that he was in Spain! Recruiting Propaganda. Recruiting propaganda takes many forms. The Press is working the “Bolshevist” and “anti-Bolshevist” issue in Spain for all it is worth, and more. The cinema news reels are pressed into service to give the impression that Franco commands a fine, heroic body of soldiers, while on the Government side there is nothing but a ragged mob. Many cinemas are showing an old •French film extolling the heroism of the Spanish foreign legion, and posters tell you that “this is the spirit moving the glorious armies of General Franco in Spain to-day.”