FRANCO’S SPAIN

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 178, 26 April 1938, Page 10

FRANCO’S SPAIN

There is every indication that the civil war in Spain is likely to end with a victory for the Nationalist forces tinder General Franco The spearhead of Franco’s southern advance has reached the sea. thw completely separating the territories held by the Spanish Republics in the south and the south-east. A change in the fortunes of war may reverse the position, but at the moment there is no sign of that. Ihe situation induces speculation as to what may happen in the even o the final decision going to General Franco. Will there be a military dictatorship? Will Spain become a totalitarian State? Will the Monarchy be restored? To these and cognate questions General Branco so far has given no very definite answers. One of his most recent utterances on the-subject concluded with a statement of now, “then”: “But now,” he said, “we can only think of ending the war. then of reconstructing the State on sound foundations. A Spanish writer, Professor Antonio Pastor, represents General Franco’s policy , as aiming at the systematic application of a large amount of social legislation—“some of which is admirable and no. in arrear of the most advanced in Europe”—which hitherto has been usee simply as weapons in the class struggle. Strikes and lock-outs wi.l be made treasonable offences; arbitration must be made efficient. A complete “Statute of Works” will be promulgated which will determine the rights and duties (no right without a duty) of both workers and employers. “The aim must'be to give dignity and security to the worker bv applying rigorously the existing legislation and improving it, not on a Utopian and inapplicable manner, but strictly within the possibilities of Spanish economic life.” . Various political groups on the Nationalist side have been welded together in pursuance of Franco’s policy of a unified Spam, and his aim of “a sole political entity of national character.” Both General Franco and other leaders in the Nationalist movement are inclined to think that a Monarchy will ultimately suit Spain better than some form of authoritarian republic. In an interview in July last he said: The new Monarchy would obviously differ profoundly from the one that fell on April 14, 1931; it would be different in substance and different in the person who would wear the crown of a pacified Spain ... Don Juan de Bourbon (younger son and heir of Don Alfonso XIII, recOK nised by all Spanish Monarchists, including the Carlists, as the riglittnl candidate of the Throne), of whose talents, discretion and personal charm I have a high opinion, has-tried to go to the front... . My responsibility is great, and it is my duty not to risk a life which some day may be precious to us. That is an interesting glimpse of Franco’s mind. But in the meantime he evidently prefers to deal with his problems in the order of urgency. First things first, he says, in effect. First, the unification of the country, then: “If some day there should be a king presiding over the State, he would have to come as a bringer of peace, and must never be counted among the victors.” As to his commitments, if any, to Germany and Italy for services rendered, he is discreetly silent beyond the general statement that no pledge affecting the territorial integrity of the country has been given to either. This remains to be seen.