MADRID AND AFTER

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 74, 29 March 1939, Page 10

MADRID AND AFTER

Madrid, the capital of Spai^i, besieged since October. 1936, '/ias fallen at last to General Franco, 'not by assault, which the defenders < had repelled time and again, bui by surrender in the belief that fjurther resistance was useless. Such an end was almost inevitable after Barcelona, the arsenal of -the republicavi forces, fell in the swift Catalonian 'campaign of the nationalists whic'A carried them to the French frontier in the first six weeks of the p/resent year. After that the fate of the rest of republican Spain, the sector from Madrid to the Mediterranean coast, was virtually sealed. President Azana, who had ret:7red to France, saw this at once and purged surrender. The Premier, Dr. iNegrin, was for fighting on, but the balance of opinion among the republican leaders, including Miaja, the defender of Madriel, was against him. The question thep. followed whether surrender, to avosl further bloodshed, should be on tei&ns or unconditional. While overtures/ were being made to General Franoo, who all along insisted on unconditional surrender, a revolt against this course among the die-hard Communists in the republican rfiriks was suppressed by General MrVa/ja after hard fighting. Meanwhile what was left of the republican lAeet in Cartagena harbour put out to sea and was interned by the Fren^n authorities on its arrival in Bizertja. It has since been handed over to the nationalists. With it went th;b last hope of republican resistance. General Franco was adams/nt in his demand for complete surrender, and this has followed almost informally, the republican leadens retiring to Valencia, no doubt later; to go into exile, and the remaining forces in the field yielding under the white flag as the nationalists advance. Thus is drawing to a close one of tfate bloodiest civil wars in history, r/haracterised by extraordinary tenacity and heroism on both sides, /and also by international intervention on a large scale with the use of the most terrible weapons of modern warfare. This intervention in the main has been one-sided. The republicans at one stage had the help of Russian aeroplanes and technicians, together with an international brigade of volunteers, including many from the British Empire, who fought most gallantly up to the last stages of active hostilities in Catalonia. On the nationalist side were far more numerous bodies of Italians regularly equipped, together with fewer Germans, mainly technicians, and whole squadrons of both German and Italian aircraft. There is little doubt from the evidence available that this large-scale intervention of Germany and Italy has been the decisive factor in General Franco's victory in the main theatres of the war. It is this intervention and its consequences that constitute the chief problem not only for Spain, but for the Western world generally when General Franco's conquest is complete. The vital strategic importance of Spain to France and Britain has again and again been emphasised. A hostile Spain ov Spain under control of hostile Powers strikes at the very life-lines of the overseas communications of Britain and France, and threatens France more immediately on the common frontier of the Pyrenees.

What will General Franco do with Spain? His Government has been recognised by Britain and France, but, on the face of it, he is under a deeper debt to Germany and Italy. For the moment there can be no certain answer to the question, for Franco has kept his own counsel, but the attitude he takes cannot fail to influence the course of events in Europe and the rest of the world.