COMPROMISE PEACE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 14, 16 July 1937, Page 7

COMPROMISE PEACE

RULED OUT BY FRANCQ

POSITION OF THE THRONE

Wearing the red sash of generalissimo over his khaki uniform, General Francisco Franco told the correspondent of the "New York Times" on June 17: "The only conclusion of the war that we would admit is our victory." He said he regarded every attempt to arrange a conditional surrender of the loyalists as "a betrayal of Spain." Asked whether he thought the war must go on until the insurgents won the rest of Spain by victory in the field or until the other side offered conditional surrender, General Franco replied that above all he desired ardently a rapid conclusion of the war that would spare Spain loss of life and destruction of property, if that could be brought about by definite victory for insurgent arms. "British opinion should appreciate," he said, "that the immense majority of Spaniards who live in the Red (loyalist) zone are subject to demagogic tyranny and hope for liberation in a triumph of Nationalist (insurgent) arms, and that the d>saffected are Communists and Anarchists. "On the other hand, the Red Government is responsible for hundreds of thousands of crimes of all kinds committed in its zone since July 18, 1930, and merits on that account exemplary punishment." He made it clear that his attitude would not be modified even if there was a prospect of negotiations on behalf of the Valencia Government by persons who, although they differed from the insurgents on the question of democratic and Parliamentary institutions, shared their respect for law and order, religion, and the traditional values of Spanish civilisation. Asked whether it would be possible to modify the system of government projected for his new Spain, which ig based on a political party already embracing Fascists, Catholics, Monarchists, and Conservatives and professing progressive social programme tc» win the support of such persons, General Franco thought not. THE ONLY DEFENCE. "My action," he said, "is dictated not by consideration for persons, but by my estimate of the facts. Experience demo-i&trates that Spanish civilisation can be defended at the present hour only through a political system such as Nationalist Spain has proclaimed and is in the process of establishing." To question whether Spain might find an appropriate unifying factor in a monarch. General Franco replied that he judged it as much an error to propose a monarchial restoration as to reject the possibility of it in the political futur. of Spain. The questions then turned to the vexed question ot British policy. General Franco made it clear that he regarded British efforts to localise the war as meritorious. He thought, however, that it was not possible to place the two belligerent parties on a plane of equality, as British policy had done. The supposed status of legal government invoked in fa"our of the Valencia regime he considered so plain a fiction that it was not acceptable by fundamental antithesis between Nationalist Spain and the chaos of the Bolshevik zone," he said, has not yet been appreciated by British public opinion, although it is understood and appreciated by those who have lived many years in Spain. "The Spanish public have been grievously surprised by this lack of understanding on the part of ihe British Government, which has abundant material on which to take steps to prevent this equivocal attitude that prejudices the present and future traditional relations of amity between Great Britain and Spain." ATTITUDE TO GIBRALTAR. General Franco vigorously denied that the territorial integrity of Spain might be of importance to Britain. It was more important, he said, to the dignity of Insurgent Spain, which would "never renounce an atom of. authority over any part of Spanish territory." This raised the question of whether General Franco regarded British possession of Gibraltar as consistent with, the territorial integrity of Spain. "Gibraltar coula not be the root and cause of an anti-British policy in Spain," he replied. "For Gibraltar has lost much of its importance." General Franco conceded the nonintervention agreement and the international arms control scheme were well-intentioned efforts to localise the conflict, but he contended they had operated all along the Franco-Catalaa frontier and at Marseilles, France, in. favour of "the Spanish Communists." Regarding the Basque and Catalan claims to local government, he stated: "National unity is an intangible dogma, not only for our movement but for every good Spaniard The position. of the new State towards legitimate administrative autonomies of a regional nature or specifically local liberties is defined in our programme and pertains to the sphere of action of the united party. "Basque separatism and Catalan separatism are artificial movements with which the public is not in sym- , pathy." General Franco urged the rapid surrender of Bilbao, in the interests of that city and its inhabitants, recalling: that his proclamations offered amnesty to all those not guilty of crimes, and respect for Basque local customs. THE RAZED CITIES. "We. as Spaniards," he said, "have no interest in taking razed cities; and, given the tactics followed by the Reds (Loyalists), which are typically Russian—recall the cassi. of Moscow of .1812 —of destroying in the last ditch of defence towns and cities lost in battle in. the open field, I fear the same thing may happen at Bilbao as happened at Irun. Eibar. Guernica, Amorebieta, and Malaga, and is slowly happening at Madrid.

"It is incomprehensible that the Nationalists provoke the destruction of houses and towns: the victor is interested not in ruins, but in things in. good order. If those directing the Red resistance were Spaniaru.., just because they were Spaniards they would lose by such destruction; but to the. foreigners who direct it, ruins are ot no importance."