SPANISH SCENES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 26

SPANISH SCENES

IN PEACE AND WAR

It is strange to think that once Spain, proud Spain, under the handsome King Phillip had England almost on her knees. Spain with her mighty armada, Spain with her treasure ships, Spain the grand, the brilliant, what had she to fear from this puny island, scarce two hundred miles broad? So thought the Spaniards, stroking their beards, plotting and planning while the smoke of the Inquisition surged round their heads. But for the valiant efforts of Drake and his like, with good Queen Elizabeth behind them, who can say what would have been the issue of the struggle, who can imagine to what heights Spain might have climbed? But now, with ail her golden glory stripped, with the glamour of the old world gone in the harsh contrasts of the new, Spain is a country rended and shaken by her peoples, torn and battered by warring factions. No more talk of the beauties of .Spain, but of Spain a shambles. Of great interest, therefore, is a book which shows Spain before she was seized by civil warfare and tramped by soldiers. Although the ever onward surge of civilisation has swept the glamour of past eras from most countries, leaving only castles and customs, it has to some extent, missed Spain. There are parts of Spain today which have come down unchanged in manners and habits of the people almost from the times of the Roman conquests. Such is' the subject of Mr. Bernard Newman's latest book, "I Saw Spain," published by Herbert Jenkins. His journey extended from the north of Spain, the industrial area, to the south, where the inhabitants are something nearer the popular conception of hot-blooded and temperamentally amorous peoples. His description of Spanish Morocco is especially fascinating. Of politics, Mr. Newman says little, for he declares at the beginning of his "I Saw Spain" that it is a travel book, not a political survey. Spanish peoples, their habits and customs, however, are more interesting to the. armchair reader than factions and politics, and Mr. Newman has certainly made a thorough and sympathetic study of the colourful provinces of Old Spain and its peoples. A grim account of the struggle which is producing bloodshed, brutality, sacrifice, and heroism in Spain is given by Baroness de Zglinitski, who writes under her maiden name of Helen Nicholson, in "Death |in the Morning" (Lovat Dickson, Ltd., London). This book is among the first of the series dealing with the Spanish civil war, and it relates the personal experiences of the authoress. When war broke early last year' she was staying with her daughter in Granada, which became a beleagured city. The horror of the conflict in Spain is brought home by the authoress, who writes in a vigorous style. The book is well ■written, and some of the incidents arising out of the war are told in a graphic and gripping manner.