Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1918. GERMAN PROPAGANDA IN SPAIN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 113, 16 May 1918, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail THURSDAY, MAY 16, 1918. GERMAN PROPAGANDA IN SPAIN.

THE cables to-day tell us that the bitterest anti-German feeling now prevails throughout Spain, whose losses. due to German submarines, are estimated "at one-third of the Spanish mercantile marine. The cable message further indicates that German propaganda in tho press is being neutralised by the shipping losses. The Madrid journal Sol -recent,/ ly published in facsimile a letter and two fly-leaves which throw lisrht on tlif seamy side of the German propaganda in Spain. The letter is from Herr von Stohrer, Secretary of the German Embassy, to one Miguel Pascual. wh» figui'es on the police register as a Syn dicalist and Anarchist. It is dated the German Embassy, Madrid, October 11. 1916. Commenting on the disclosures the Madrid correspondent of the London Times states that it has Ion r been suspected that the Spanish Government possessed proofs of German attempts to foment the revolutionary movement through the -Syndicalists of Barcelona, but this is the first piece of evidence that has seen the light, and on receiving it the Sol communicated with Pascual. who made the following interesting declarations : —His acquaintance with the Germans dates from the Anarchist Congress at F'errol . in April. 1915. where be made a particularly v'n lenff speech. He was immediately invited to call at the German Embassy, where he was received with great cnrciifi-ity by Herr Grimm, one of the Secretaries. Grimm spoke enthusiastically of the close relations existing the Oerman Embassy and the Syndicalists of Barcelona, and offered him (Pascual) assistance for the purpose of extending his Anarchist propaganda and giving an impulse to the Syndicalist movement throughout Spain. On his next visit to the Embassy he met von Stohrer, First Secretary, who received him warmly and confirmed all that had been said by Grimm. He pi"ofessed profound sympathy with the Spanish workmen, and- said the Anarchists ought to do their utmost to excite them against their employers, and that the Anarchists of Madrid should assist those of Barcelona. Under Stohrer's direction Pascual drafted an Anarchist fly-leaf directed against shipowners, which the Sol produces in facsimile. The Times correspondent goes on to say that an Anarchist meeting' held in Madrid at the end of 1916, was organised in agreement with the. German Embassy. The most violent Anarchists tok, part, and instructed by the German Embassy, made a combined attack on Count Romanones (who was then Prime Min'V ter). The Germans at that time had Romanones on the brain. The whole German press were against him. 'One morning Pascual was summoned to the German Embassy and ordered to organise a revolutionary strike in Madrid in connection with others already arranged in Catalonia • and elsewhere, and to excite the people against Count. Romanones by every possible means. Some of their suggestions frightened' Pascual, and he refused to co-operate. . A few days later a German-Anarchist agent, Francisco Jardiri, .arrived iri. Madrid from Barcelona and told Pascual that lit* had come to organise a revolutionary general strike, that he proposed to cut all communications with Madrid, blow up the railway, bridges, spreading confusion in the country by all possible mean-', and that he had plenty of, money and dynamite. Pascual took alarm, and the subject was dropped. The Germans, however, continued'to be obsessed with the idea that Count Romanones was their greatest enemy and must be got rid of. Certain sugestions to this end were so preposterous that Pascual shrank from them, but the newspaper and leaflet campaign continued, and both Stohrer and Grimm guaranteed that the Anarchists would not suffer on account of these leaflets or be prosecuted by the police .Pascual throws an interesting light on the origin of the. August general strike. In May German agents among the Syndicalists began to atack. the trade unions and mobilised the whole of the Syndicalist press for this purpose. The reason was that the Syndicalist societies were controlled by Socialists, an honest and independent body of men who have refused, with one or two notorious exceptions, to lend themselves to German intrigue. These attacks,, accusing the trade unions of cowardice. slackness, ancPwant of interest for the workmen, grew so violent that the 'unions . and their leaders were provoked, against their better judgment,' into a general strike. On the failure of this movemeat the German efforts were directed to', preventing Spanish exports to France aind England, and Pascual was ordered to excite public opinion.' by all possible means- against, the exporters, especially the phipowners. . Both at Barcelona and Bilbao the Germans have an understanding with certain sections of. the workmen for the purpose of provoking constant strikes and disputes

with the employers. According to Pascual, the Germans have "black lists," on which figure all the firms which export to the Allies. In certain factories in Catalonia the Germans pay the work- | men a regular salary to provoke conI flicts and impede production. All this is i arranged through the Syndicalist com- : mittees at Barcelona. | fclwwullllllMiiill mi IfllMim II ~^*Mi3B&?