TOWARD THE UNDERSTANDING OF SPAIN

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 249, 17 July 1937, Page 7 (Supplement)

TOWARD THE UNDERSTANDING OF SPAIN

A Contribution by Mr. Bernard Newman

“I Saw Spain,” by Bernard Newman (London: Jenkins).

“I have visited Spain often, and each time I have run into trouble,” wrote Mr. Bernard Newman, when he set off on his last tour of that country, this time on bicycle. Like all students of Spain, he had been expecting the military revolt for weeks and months, and deeming the time very close, he set off to “cover” any situation which might arise for a Fleet Street newspaper. He rode without plan across Spain from the Pyrenees to Gibraltar, then crossed the Straits to the new Spain in Morocco. The record of ms ride is an intensely interesting one, for it is a picture of Spain the day before th (} Civil War. As my davs passed in Spain. I knew that previous calculations had been sound there was serious trouble ahead. The forecast seemed to be’ generally recognised, and in the humblest homes I found a great apprehension. This fear was remarkably prophetic, too. I discussed the situa ion with hundreds of people, from cabinet ministers .to peasants. Most of_ thetn I'erconcerned, not only with the like ihood of strife in Spain, but with the likelihood of foreign interference. . He walked and rode alone, seek.ng to make contacts in bis own manner. He mixed with peasants, gipsies, business people; spoke with Communists and Fascists alike, sounding every opinion, trying to sort truth from teeming rumour, watching every action about him which might give some indication of the outburst to come. He saw and became involved in political quarrels between groups of different political opinion. Police. Civil Guards and shock troops were quite unable to control the people when they became involved in these quarrels, and revenge had become a legal excuse for murder. Long before one murder was investigated another was committed. One officer told him that twice within a week he went to arrest men for murder. and each time found the men murdered when he arrived.

■ Actually, however, there is in Mr. Newman’s story as much about Spain and the country, as there is about the people and their problems. His journeyings took him into some strange, outlandish places, and he has given his \ narrative a new angle by ignoring the features of Spain already well documented, and telling of his experiences in places such as the cave dwelling of Caparrosso and the gloomy homes of the Hurtles, where the last descendants of the Moors live. If he dismisses the cathedral of Leon in a few lines, and passes through Seville without so much as a mention of Murillo and Velasquez, it is because he rode to see Spain, not its sights. And he considers an understanding of the character of the country far, far more important to an understanding of Spain than any of its most treasured and beautiful cathedrals and art possessions.

By the time Mr. Newman had passed through Spain he found his calculations were wrong, and he was just too early to strike the real uprising. ■ He passed over to Morocco full of anticipation, to find the position almost us tense there.

On one occasion he joined a party of the Foreign Legion, and was having a meal with them when an officer drove up with a small suite. I looked at him. lie was short, with the figure of a rather stocky boy. By his uniform he was of high rank, yet he was surprisingly young. His face was clean and open, and his atmosphere was friendly. He was the very antithesis, in fact, of the war-lord type; in his general atmosphere he reminded me of Chancellor Dollfuss, of Austria, more than any other man I had ever met—he was not so diminutive as Dollfuss, but was definitely small. But I had never seen him before, or. to my knowledge, his picture, and certainly could not place him. “Take a good look at him,” my friend advised. “You are going to hear a lot about him soon." “Who is lie?” I asked. “His name is General Franco,” said my friend.

I plied my friend with questions as Franco drove oft as abruptly as lie bad come. Why would I hear ot him? In what way ?

But his questions were .hedged, and Mr. Newman was left to draw his own conclusions. A few moments later he was given an ample lead. He walked over the ground where the company had been exercising and found curious stone markers strewn everywhere. At last his friend explained them. “These stones mark the lines of streets,” he said. “We were exereis'ng in street fighting.” He was then told that the uprising might occur at any time. “It may be to-morrow or next week. It just needs one more outrage —a good rallying point for the country, and then we're off. Once it happens, then put your shirt on trouble —you win. And if you can find out why Franco came to see our commanding officer to-day. then you will know as much as most men.'-’

He was a good prophet. Within a few hours there was news of the murder of Senor Sotelo. But twelve hours after that the author was on a liner steaming from Gibraltar to England, and only then did he hear that the guns in Spain were really booming. He had foreseen the revolt and missed it by a few hours.

To many readers the most interesting and valuable chapter in this book will be the final one. Having finished telling his story, Mr. Newman devotes this chapter to an unbiased history of events in Spain leading up to the present war. and even ventures to prophesy in conclusion : I am quite certain that an indefinite glimpse of freedom, distorted though it might have been, has gripped the very soul of Spain, and will never lie lost. This is the real tragedy of Spain: that, whether Franco be right or wrong,'if he wins this war then Spain has to go through the appalling bloodbath once again.