RELATIONS WITH SPAIN

Evening Star, Issue 16987, 8 March 1919, Page 2

RELATIONS WITH SPAIN

PliBA FOR RECOGNITION. COUNTRY NOT DECADENT. It is perhaps difficult for Englishmen to understand Spain's atitude in tho war, wrote tho special correspondent of a London paper from Madrid under date Decomber 5. They are apt to forget that Spain had practically declared her neutrality long before the outbreak of war. It was, in fact, in 1889 that a Spanish statesman, Senor Maura, eaid j '' There is no nation less liable than Spain to bo involved in the more or less imminent struggles which darken the face of Europe, nor is it possible that she should adopt any other attitude than one of absolute, scrupulous, and unswerving neutrality." The disastrous war in which Spain was humiliated nine years later naturally did not make her keener for intervention. Yet they are mistaken who suppose Spain's neutrality a sign of deadnesa, decadence, or indifteren.ee. Spain in some respects is not a nation, but merely 20,0C0,C00 of individuals, and it is safe to eay that in no other country lias discussion" between individuals concorning tho war beon more violent and continuous. And when we come to consider the opinions of individuals we find that a goodly proportion of prominent Spaniards havo been and are fervently pro-Ally. Of the pro-Germans many havo "boe-n less friends of Germany £h<m enemies of anti-Clericalism or Bolshevism. But tho King himself lias never disguised his pro-Ally opinions, which have indeed been not merely -piatonic ; nor would it be easy to exaggerate the goodwill and services of Eticii men as the Duke of Alba, while a groat number of widely-read authors havo been persistently anti-Ger-man. Thus wo find Blasco Ibanez in one of his novels saying that " those Germans, whatever they may do, will always be a vulgar set," and prophetically speaking of the " false facility of adaptation peculiar to their race." GERMAN ACTIVITIES. Nor must it bo supposed that Spain's neutrality has been all gain. She has had sufferings and losses like other neutrals, and we may sympathise with her in having tho Germans still with her. In this rospect she is already paying the penalty of her neutrality j for, although the Germans have to somo extent disappeared from the surface, they are busy enough beneath it, and it is very easy for a clever German agent to poison and mislead the ignorant and apparently independent Spaniard. The Spaniards are not worshippers of material success, but they are undoubtedly eager to stand well with tho Allies, who will do well to realise that beneath Spanish pride and assurance is a very real humility and even self-distrust. Force of circumstances causes Spain's foreign policy, now ns before the war, to be based on close friendship with England and France. The new Government, presided over by the advocate of intervention on the side of tho Allies, the Count of Romauones, is, of course, strongly proAlly. But even so consistent a supporter of neutrality as Sonor Maura said, as cat-h----as September, 1916, that " Spain may in a definite and practical way show her preferences, and these preferences are determined by her geographical situation, which imposes an alliance with France and England." TREATMENT AS AN EQUAL. These nations, however, he proceeded, must change the methods adopted during the last two and a-half centuries towards Spain, and treat her as an equal. The attitude towards Spain in tho past has been based, not on ill-will, but on ignorance. People seem to have imagined Mint because Spain bad lost her colonial empire she was a listless, decadent nation. Spain, however, has never beon decadent. At the same time, it is not easy for foreign Governments to take a nation seriously which indulges in a chango of -Ministry every six weeks or so, and whose politicians seem to prefer political chatter and intrigue in tho capital to the effort of setting themselves seriously to carry out a national policy. It is a proof of Spain's energy and vitality that she progresses nevertheless. It is for Great Britain to realise and encourage this progress, and to recognise the excellence of many Spanish products. Tho English and Spanish are both nations of such strongly pronounced character and marked individuality that they have often I been at loggerheads. " Truly I shall never brook a Spaniard," says a character in Ben Jonson's 'The Alchemist.' "Never since Eighty-eight could I abide them, and that was gone three years afore I was born, in truth"." And in 1554, when Philip 11. was married to the Queen of England, a Spaniard in England wrote: "These English hate us like the Devil, and treat us accordingly."