SPANISH STRUGGLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 112, 13 May 1937, Page 5

SPANISH STRUGGLE

FOREIGN AID ASSESSED

"TIMES" WRITER'S IDEAS

TURNED THE TIDE

The following article comes from a correspondent of "The Times" of London recently returned from Spain. In it he indicates the extent of foreign assistance on both sides in the civil war. It was published by the "New York Times":— The war that is being waged In Spain is not a Spanish war. and it has not been a Spanish war since August, says the correspondent. How meagre were the msrtial resources' of Spain in July, 1936, can be judged by the secret instructions issued before the revolt by the rebel military junta. In these It was- proposed that the garrisons of Logrono, Burgos, Valladolid, Pamplona, Soria, and Saragossa should rise simultaneously, and that all except that of Saragossa should go the help of the garrison of Madrid. Careful preparations were made for the protection of the columns and the march over the Guadarrama Mountains, for it was known that "the Government has recently bought twenty-six armoured cars for the Assault Guards.' Therefore, each column must be preceded by a truck with specially prepared armour, on which must be set a small cannon pointing forwards over the cab. "Do not fear,!' reads the document, "the Government aviation. They have no bombs heavier than fifteen pounds, which make a lot of noise and nothing more." .There is no mention of anti-aircraft artillery. - The men that marched on Guadarrama were of the Spanish army and of the Fascist Falange Espanola. The men who met them were Spanish also —Assault Guards, Army, and Popular Front' militia. In February, 1937, most of these daring men were dead. The lorries in fancy dress have disappeared, the Government aeroplanes have fallen, the twenty-six armoured cars of the Assault Guards are on the scrap-heap, the fifteen-pound bombs have put on weight. . ■■ • FOREIGN PLOTS ON BOTH SIDES. Both Government and insurgents ■ at? tack with foreign air fleet"; piloted for the most part by foreigners in their normal foreign military formations, and fight off the enemy, with foreign antiaircraft artillery—in which the. Ger.man shines. In the fieljl they pit foreign tank against foreign tank, and meet each other with foreign antitank guns. For the most difficult fighting foreign shock troops are employed as a stiffener; Madrid 'and Malaga owe their two different fates to the, foreign infantryman. Both sides have their foreign troops, foreign staffs, and foreign specialists. The.air.defences of Barcelona are said to be Russian: on the other side there are at least two German anti-aircraft units for the protection of great cities as well as numerous field batteries. Their German officers complain that the guns, whose muzzle-velocity, ceiling, and accuracy are very high, are being spoilt by continual travel on Spanish roads. At three critical moments for the insurgents, the intervention of their foreign friends has turned the scales for them. The latest was at the end of January, when a diversion was required to relieve the deadlock round Madrid. The Malaga solution *was chosen by the Italian... advisers of General Franco. It is improbable that Malaga would have been taken without the Italian and German contribution in infantry, naval gunnery, and bombardment by land and sea 'planes. The Madrid . Goverment has been twice saved by foreign aid. It was the arrival of the new Russian material in planes, tanks, and artillery, as Well as the example shown by the International Eleventh and late* by the International Twelfth Brigade that saved Madrid at the beginning of November. Throughout that month foreign material, mostly Russian, continued to muster in the Madrid sky. In the January offensive against El Pardo. north of Madrid, and perhaps also in the February offensive against the Jar am a, south of Madrid, the brunt of the fighting was borne by international volunteers. They had been recruited by an international organisation,, the Communist Party. THE FIRST TO INTERVENE. There can be no doubt that the first to intervene in Spanish affairs were Italy and Germany. The Savoia aeroplanes that crashed in French territory in July had received their flying orders on' July 17, before the revolt began,-and the German bombers began to arrive at the beginning of August. At about the same time, but riot on French initiative, eighteen French aeroplanes were supplied to the Madrid Government. Other German and Italian fighting aeroplanes were supplied to General Franco after the fall of Badajoz. All these interventions in Spanish affairs were made before the non-intervention agreement was signed on August 28; technically, therefore, they were normalised by that act, and intervention in the terms of the agreement takes place only after that date. After August 28 and until (probably) December, Germany does not stand convicted of technical intervention; nor does France. Italy does, for she sent artillery with .Italian regimental personnel to Spain 'in October. But on the whole, in this period the rhythm of intervention moves from Germany to Italy to Russia. -Throughout October Russia poured material into Spain, Worth and east, until the effort of the Fascist Powers was equalised. All her aeroplanes and tanks and artillery arrived now. Her contribution was paid for by the Spanish gold reserves, of which the Madrid Government was legally the proprietor. The' rtalian and German contributions were paid partly % by cash, partly by trade agreements, such as that enabling the German firm Hisma to take the stocks of the Rio Tinto copper mines, and partly by political agreements. One at least of the latter is known, in which General Franco promises Italy never to engage Spain in international measures—i.e.. "sanctions" against her, and not to permit shipping hostile to Italy to use Spanish harbours. October was the great period of volunteering in France for the International Column. It was obvious that Italy and Germany would react. Some time about the end of November more German fighting aeroplanes arrived, as well as forty, more Italians of the same class. And from this time on observers in Spain noted that the two Powers were beginning to specialise, the Germans taking over bombing and the Italians fighting. The Italians also aided the insurgents at sea by watching on their behalf the movements of vessels from Russian ports. About eight of the latter were taken into insurgent ports or sunk. THE ITALIAN EFFORT. Germany and Italy also supplied men, to counter the international column. But first it appeared that only Germany was sending men. Her volunteers, raised from the German Army, in whose barracks the Spanish war was advertised, arrived in three batches. Altogether between 12,000

and 15,000 men were sent by Germany in great secrecy. Except for specialists and for the few hundred Italians under Hossi, who invaded Majorca in September and recaptured the island'of Iviza, only 2500 Italian volunteers entered Spain in 1936, at the beginning of December. From January 1 until several weeks ago, however, Italy has poured 40,000 men into Spain, fully equipped and paid from the Fatherland. They are recruited and organised by the Fascist Party. A rough figure for the. number of foreigners serving under General Franco is 60,000.

The International Column, under the Valencia Minister of War, is far more difficult to calculate. Most have been recruited in or passed through France, but they have never entered Spain in the large organised units sent from Germany and Italy.

The official figure published by Valencia is 15,000 in all. It is certain that of these 7000 since November have been serving at Madrid, and that there have been other brigades on the Aragon front and near Cordoba. There are also reserves at Albacete and in Barcelona. Sympathetic but not necessarily gullible observers set the figure at 10,000. Others rise to 35.000, and it is improbable that there are more than that.

They have suffered heavy casualties, for they have held the front line since November. The Italians have only just thrown in their forces, and it is still doubtfui whether any Germans, except air pilots and specialists, have seen battle.

Both in numbers and in material, in short, the insurgents are more powerfully supported from abroad.