SPAIN'S CIVIL STRIFE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22949, 29 January 1938, Page 4 (Supplement)

SPAIN'S CIVIL STRIFE

What It'ls All About

By G.H.

MANY people who have not followed the Civil War in Spain from the outset must have found themselves confused in trying to distinguish between the two parties. There seemed something topsy-turvy about them. Harold Cardozo's "The March of a Nation," very clearly sets out the position and how it came about. Using shrewd electioneering moves, tlic? writer states, the .Popular l 4 rout Party, consisting of Socialists, Radicals and Communists, found themselves able to assume office as the Government of Spain, although they were in a minority. They immediately plunged the country into such tv welter of murder, robbery and arson, that the saner and more patriotic people of Spain banded together under the name of Nationalists, and were soon in open revolt.

The Nationalists believed that insurrection had become the most sacied duty of the Spanish people. Thus the term Revolutionaries embraces the side which, fighting against the Government, seeks to restore law and order to Spain. .Mr. Cardo/.o is unswervingly on the Nationalist side, which perhaps minimises the value of his writing, and his account of incidents and events in Spain is not particularly well set down. . But his survey of the issues between the parties is clear and concise. Especiallv interesting is his forecast of the future. Although the position of General Franco at the time of writing was almost as supreme in Spain as that ol Hitler and Mussolini in their countries, these are signs that he favours the restoration of the monarchy. His recent speeches have contained insistent references to the "historical traditions" of Spain, and there have appeared inspired articles in praise of General Monk who restored Charles Jl. to the English throne. Mr. ( Cardo/.o lias tried to draw General If ranco on the future, but has been met with the enigmatic reply: "The people of Spain will make known their will at the appropriate moment."

"The March of a Nation," by Harold Curdozo, (Eyre anil Spottiswoode)