THE BASQUES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 104, 4 May 1937, Page 11

THE BASQUES

ANCIENT EUROPEANS

THEIR NATIONAL HOWIE

(Written for 'The Post" by W.S.R.)

The Basques occupy only three of the smallest of Spain's forty-nine provinces, and they, number but half a million of Spain's total population of twenty-five millions. They are a mountain folk, whose national home has been the Biscayan slopes of the Pyrenees. Across the French frontier there is also a considerable Basque element estimated to number 200,000. To these must be added the Basques of the dispersion, of whom more than a million migrated to North and South America, where they still cling to their native traditions and culture. "I TOO AM A BASQUE." Lloyd George, in making a donation towards the relief of the beleaguered people of Bilbao, said: "I too am a Basque." His words must not be teken too literally. But there is an element of truth in the claim. The Welsh are the unmixed racial descendants of the ancient Britons, and the Basques not only represent the oldest tribe which, inhabited the Iberian Peninsula, but, the oldest aboriginal race of Europe. They are true Europeans who have retained their own language and culture since the Eoman conquest of Spain 200 B.C. Unlike the Castilian, Portugese, and Catalan dialects the Basque lan-' guage does not belong to the Latin family, nor do the Basques. The Spanish people represent a racial complex in which Phoenician, Carthaginian, Roman, Gothic, and Moorish blood has comingled with that of the native Iberian stock. CHILDREN OF THE MOUNTAIN AND THE SEA. The Basque country presents a contrast to 'the major part of the Spanish Peninsula. It is shut off from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenean Mountain wall. Westward the Cantabrian Range and the Asturias stretch across Northern Spain to the Atlantic. The turbulent arm of the Atlantic Ocean, the Bay of Biscay, takes charge of the climate of northern Spain along its shores. The rainfall is abundant and regular, averaging 59in at San Sebastian near the French border, and showing a greater ratio along the coast westwards to Cape Finisterre. At Bilbao it is said to rain more than half the days of the year. The aspect of the country is verdant green. Pines and oaks flourish on the mountains, and mixed agriculture and stock breeding are intensively carried on throughout the whole region by skilled and industrious farmers. Climatic conditions and agricultural and pastoral products are similar to those of New Zealand. The climate throughout this area is equable, mild in winter and cool in summer, (pn Sebastian's mean summer temperature is given as 67 degrees. The excellent climate combined with beauty of landscape and sea, has made San Sebastian the most popular summer resort in the whole of Spain. To this Basque town the ex-King Alfonso, and the Royal household came each summer to escape the heat of Madrid. The Basque country is now divided into three provinces, Guipuzcoa, whose capital is San Sebastian, Alava, lying inwards from Guipuzcoa whose capital is Vittoria, and Viscaya westward, whose capital is Bilbao six miles inland on the Nervion River. A few miles from Bilbao is Guernica, once the capital of the whole Basque country. For many generations the Basques had home rule under the Spanish flag, and the Diet met under an ancient oak tree still celebrated in the Basque national anthem. NATIONAL CHARACTER. Viscaya, the chief province, is the Basque word for Biscay. And- besides being excellent farmers, the Basques have won fame as seamen. The entire coast of Spain is festooned with splendid ports, and most oi its commerce is water borne; and the Basques who served their sea apprenticeship on the Bay of Biscay have proved intrepid seamen and navigators. Those who have lived among them and know them best, speak of them in superlatives. Thus a French author writes of them as "The best looking, healthiest, most alert, and happiest folk that is possible to find in Europe." • They are deeply religious and devoutly attached to the Roman Catholic faith. The Basque representative in the Caballero Government is an openly avowed Catholic. And in every Basque town the services and' sacraments of the Church have been maintained in spite of the upheaval of war. When the civil war broke out the Basque people declared their loyalty to the, Government. The reason for this stand was twofold: The Government favoured regional and municipal forms of administration, which accorded with Basque national sentiment for local autonomy. On the other hand the rebel administration declared for a Spain, "One and indivisible" under a dictatorship; and the triumph of the rebels would be the death blow to Basque aspirations. The second reason for Basque loyalty was the religious motive. The people stand for a social regime which they believe harmonises with Christian principles, such as have been enunciated in the Papal Encyclicals on Labour and Money. And the only hope they saw of the realisation of such ideals in na- j' tional life was under the forms of |' i democratic rule. ■ ' AGAINST GREAT ODDS. ! The decision taken by the Basque i people was heroic, for the odds were ]