FRANCO'S SPAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 56, 4 September 1945, Page 8

FRANCO'S SPAIN

OWN TWO VOICES

HOME FRONT UNCHANGED

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Coayright.) Rec. 11 a.m. ' LONDON, Sept 3 Diplomatic circles in Madrid are pondering the Spanish Government's apparently deliberate policy of speaking with an unbending voice for home consumption and a more soothing voice for abroad, says Reuters correspondent. Speculation follows the suppression within 10 days of publication in the Spanish Press of two statements of policy by the Foreign Minister, Alberto Artajo. The first statement banned was an interview witn a Lisbon newspaper, the second was Artajo's reply to Mr. Ernest Bevin's references to Spain in the House of Commons on August 20. The correspondent adds: "It seems that at the moment there exists an agreed compromise between the various groups of Franco's Cabinet to make placating gestures abroad without materially changing anything on the home front. The impression is gained that the regime is watching the effects of these pronouncements abroad, and that so long as the British and American Governments appear to be satisfied nothing much will be changed in Spain. "The prolongation of the iron censorship of Spanish newspapers continues to give Spaniards a distorted and uninformed view of the world situation. The censor stops even such papers as the London "Times" if it contains comment adverse to the regime."