POLICIES TO SPAIN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21605, 6 January 1945, Page 2

POLICIES TO SPAIN

The British Foreign Office's refusal to allow Scnor Negrin. the former Spanish Republican Prime Minister, now a refugee 1 in Britain, to broadcast a speech to a rally in New York, organised to support the establishment of a democratic regime in Spain, provoked the New York Times' to criticise the “indecision of British policy toward General Franco’s regime and its disinclination toward anyone seeking to overthrow it." "British policy seems to be caught between dislike for the Franco regime and fear of a revival of civil war in Spain.” added the paper.

This criticism underlines the fact that, although the British and United States Governments agree on basic principles, they possess differing viewpoints on several questions of foreign policy which, perhaps, is most marked in their attitude to Spain. This is further emphasised in an article on neutrals published in the American State Department's bulletin by its chief of the Eastern Hemisphere division. The neutrality of Sweden and Switzerland, he says, is perhaps justified by the fact that they are “islands" surrounded by German or Germancontrolled territory. After pointing to the fact that Turkey and Portugal have treaties of alliance with Britain, he says: “Spain, a dictatorship, in debt to Hitler, is neither an island nor an ally." Geographic considerations, traditional Interests and the temperaments of the British and ' American leaders are all important contributory elements to the differences or similarities of British and American policy toward their allies as welt as neutrals and the future of their enemies. The main objectives of both Britain and America are world peace, economic stability, internal political stability in other nations, a certain degree of freedom for their activities which are world-wide and moral quality and dependability among the rulers or heads of States with which they must deal. The attitude of Britain and America furnishes an illustration of the divergence on lines of policy. The American official viewpoint is that Franco, a dictator, the head of an unstable Government, lacking the support of all but a minority of his people, is an actual enemy of the United Nations since he sent troops against Russia. The British outlook is that Spain, as a member of the European family, like Portugal, is important to Britain because they are on the Iberian Peninsula lying athwart the Empire's lifelines and that America is differentiating between dictatorships and dictatorships in that lhe United States has herself accepted and co-operated with dictatorships in South America. British policy is dictated by the fact that she must live in close proximity to such neutral States as Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Turkey and her methods of altering their policies so that they will benefit the Allied course, while they may bo termed opportunist, arc actually more realistic and possibly more effective than those of the United States.