EVENTS IN SPAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 68, 17 September 1936, Page 15

EVENTS IN SPAIN

THE ROAD TO STRIFE

CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WAR

A W.E.A. LECTURE

The Spanish situation was the. subject of a W.E.A. lecture by Dr. A. G. Butchers on. Monday night at ths Trades Hall, Vivian Street. . Like NewZealand, said Dr. Butchers, Spain was a land of mountains and fiver valleys, very difficult terrain indeed for military operations. Ninety per cent, was agricultural land: The greater part of it was owned in enormous holdings by a nobility relatively few in number. Less than half, was cultivated and that by labourers who had to provide their own mules and primitive" ploughs. The country -was rich in minerals, including coal and iron, and mining and manufacturing industries were established on a fairly' large scale. Hydro-electric power was available, but the full resources of the country in this and other directions still remained to be exploited.. With a population of approximately 30,000,000, Spain was perhaps the'most backward country in Europe. About 45 per cent, of the people were illiterate. Under a progressive Government Spain might be expected to become once again one of the leading nations of Europe. DE RIVERA'S DICTATORSHIPFor generations the country was governed by a monarchy, supported by the Roman Catholic Church, the landed nobility, and the army officers. Frightened by the growth of Socialist opinion iil 1923,V ftirig Alfonso 'corisfentea' to the establishment of a military dictatorship under General Primo .de Rivera. For eight years the Cortes or Parliament Was not stiHim'oned. Al 7 : though the regime instituted a number1 of much-needed reforms, it was.sternlyj repressive, and liberal thinkers wercj gaoled in large numbers. Repression was ultimately followed by reaction.1 Alfonso was led to dismiss de Rivera, Permission was given to hold municipal elections, at which the Liberals and Socialists" swept the polls. As a result Alfonso left the country. The «?:aols were opened and a provisional Liberal Government was set.up in 1931. A General Election confirmed it in power, and thus effected a bloodless revolution. The new; Government consisted Of a group of intellectuals. I( was definitely Liberal, and not Communist. A new Constitution was drafted proclaiming Spain a democratic republic, having no official religion, but guaranteeing freedom of conscience and liberty of worship to all. Electioiis to the Cortes Were to be dh the basis of direct and secret ballot, with proportional representation. All men artd Wdnie'n over 23 ■tyere given the vote; ".'•'• ■ REVOLUTIONARY ACTfoN. The n6w Government immediately took action against all three sections of the former ruling classes. It dissolved* the- Jesuit Order, nationalised all Catholic Church property, placed all religious orders under the Ministry of Justice, and prohibited them from engaging in commerce, industry, or education. All State subsidies to, thq Church were cut off, and education, which was made free, secular, and corri'j pulsory, was placed under the charge of a Department of State. The wealth taken" frorh the Jesuits was. tb. be used for the purposes of social' ■ Welfare! Similarly, all lands owned-:'by the; nobility were by law tabe]exproprif ated without compensation and brokeri up into farms for Cultivation by landless agricultural labourers and, small farmers owning less than 10 acres of non-irrigated :or one acre;,* of irrigated . land. The army was radically reorganised artd half the officers retired. This^ was in it«elf a severe blow at the nobility, whose' sons had been provided with lucrative sinecures as higher officer's in numbers out of all proportion to the rank; and file. A vigorous ' public works campaign was planned. ■. '' . ■,-. RECOVERY OF THE RIGHT. The dispossessed classes combined to bring about the overthrow 'ot. the, Government, which continued in Office for only two years. This was accomplished by President • Zam'ofa, < a devout Catholic, dissolving . the Cortes and holding an ele'etion in circumstances which resulted in the victory' of the parties of the1 Jtight. On.c of the main causes of this was the.genuine liberalism of the Government, which took no steps to restrict the freedom of speech and action of those who were using that freedom With the, avowed object of destroying it. ' Then followed two years of .ultrareactionary government uhder a series of changing Cabinets," dependent on the support- Of the Catholic. Party, which Was now the largest in the Cortes. The leader of this party was Gil Rpbles; a brilliant yoUng university man, not yet 40 years of age,, whose wife belonged to : one. of the .dispossessed land-owning families and two of whose-brothers were Jesuits. Under

this Government the Church, the land owners, and the army officers were all restored to their former properties and privileges. Gil Robles made no secret of his views and intentions. "Democracy," he said in a speeph in Madrid,

"is not for. us ah end, but a means; When the moment comes, either Parliament submits or we will make it disappear." • In. the course of another speech, he said: "Holding honest elections according to the rules'of modern democracy is an act of innocence which does not occur more than once in the history of each people." It was not surprising that when Robleg was given the portfolio of war "^he soclaists made an attempt to overthrow the Government by armed rebellion. This happened in October, 1934, when a civil war, the precursor of the present one, was quickly brought to an end by the brutal use of Moors and foreign mercenary h-oops rushed from Morocco. The Socialists were rendered leaderless by wholesale imprisonments following the victory of the Government. But when Gil Robles later demanded the premiership, following Hitler's example, President Zamora, who was a Liberal as well as a Catholic, refused, and a new Government was formed in which he was dropped altogether.' In the end the disunity of the parties on the Government side led Zamora to dissolve, the Cortes a second time. REBELLION PRECIPITATED. The number of political prisoners then held in gaol by the Government was between 25,000 and 30,000. The elections Were held in February last and resulted in an overwhelming Victory of the Left. An amnesty was proclaimed and the prisoners were freed. This was due to a newly-organised alliance of all the opposition parties* including the Communists* in what was called the Popular Front. Regaining power, the Liberals set about the reenactment of their earlier legislation against the Church, the grandees, and the generals, who began at once td organise the present appeal to arms. On.the other side the labouring classes seized the estates' without Waiting for the legislation to be enacted/ A large number, of militant Communists who had escaped to Russia after the. 1934 rising returned to Madrid, where a procession of 5000' mot6r-cafs \vas organised to welcome them. Strikes were called and everything possible was done .to iorce the Government's hand in the direction of Communism. Caught between two fires, the Government vainly attempted to control the situa-1 tion, which came to a head in July with the ■murder of1 Sotelo', the leader of the Monarchist Party. This precipitated the rising at least two months before the rebels' plans and preparations,were complete. The ferocity oif the war was due io the fact that it combined all the features of the most brutal types of fighting known to history. It was at once a civil war, a class war, and a religious war. The use of fiendish black troops on the one side was paralleled by Unheard-of atrocities against Catholics on the other, and all overtures for the humanisatioh of the Conflict had so far been rejected by both sides. REBELS' ORGANISATION. There was good reason for believing, said Dr. Butchers, that the rebels had been successful in previously arranging for the supply of aeroplanes, armaments, and munitions from Italian and German sources; also that ex-King Alfonso wa£ privy to the plot. It was significant that when Alfonso's third son, the heir presumptive to the Spanish throne, was married to an Italian princess in Rome in October last, over 5000 Spanish royalists attended the ceremony. Mussolini was suspected of havinf; designs on the Balearic Islands as,/.the- price 'ol assistance given to the :reb'ejjs, provided the'y^ were successful. 'lV* was'also; :believeei that the German warshipsV;which were rushed to Mor t ocean' ports had • supplied armaments and munitions to the rebels. The German interest in Morocco was Well kriowh. The neighbouring French Gov> ernment feared the possibility of a similar clash breaking out between Eight arid; Left extremists in that Country, and moved at once With Britain's help to secure the localisation of the conflict to Spain. Strong efforts had been bade by the -Communists to involve i Portugal. Russian sympathies and help had been given to thfe Spanish Government, which the insurrection had thrown completely into the arms of the extreme Left. Zamora had been ousted front the Presidency and succeeded by Azana, ' who had been Premier of the Republican Government in 1932. Caballero, the ne\y Premier, was an out-and-out Socialist, who would undoubtedly establish a dictatorship of the proletariat on the Russian model, if successful in overcoming the rebellion.' The chances of success for the rebels would diminish unless they could quickly win through to power. Their forces were mostly foreign mercenaries and Moors whose only concern was their pay, whereas the Government workers' militia, in which women also were fighting, were volunteers. The elections showed that the Government had the masses behind them, and as recently as last June Caballero had stated confidently that if the whole Labour movement were united no organised military force could successfully oppose it. HITLER'S RECENT OtTBtRST. Hitler's recent outburst at Nuremberg was evidence Of his fears that the rebels would hot succeed and that Trotsky's prophecy would be realised, namely, that Spain Would be the first European country to follow Russia's example. This would depend on the Non-intervention Committee being successful in preventing further supplies of aeroplanes and munitions being smuggled to Morocco and Spain; and that was why Germany had been so reluctant to come in. The British Government had preferred that France should take the initiative in this matter, but British diplomacy had played a prominent part in arranging both the agreement and the setting up of the Committee of control. Britain's immediate concern Was to prevent a general war, for which she was not yet ready. The only way to do that was to secure the localisation of the struggle'; but that did not mean the Government and people of Britain were indifferent as regards the Spanish civil war itself. Quite the contrary. They realised fully that liberalism in Spain had been crushed between the extremes of Capitalism and Communism, and that Hitler's almost despairing cry at Nuremberg indicated in fact the very real alternatives With which the Spanish war had brought all Europe more nearly face to face.