DIFFICULTIES IN SPAIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23413, 1 August 1939, Page 8

DIFFICULTIES IN SPAIN

Having emerged as the victor in the civil war, General Franco has now to win the peace in Spain. His is no easy task after almost three years of internecine strife and no doubt a good deal of substance lies behind the repeated reports of dissensions at Burgos. The great question is hoW best to tackle the required work of national reconstruction. On the material side the people must be fed, millions housed anew, and millions more set to work. Short rations and other hardships endured cheerfully for a cause during the war cannot be suffered indefinitely in peace. The difficulty is to restore the industrial and transport organisation and equipment that has been destroyed or allowed to deteriorate. The condition of the factories in Catalonia, the Spanish Lancashire, is reported as desperate and more is required than an order to restore them to their former owners from the careless hands of the syndicalists. This economic problem can scarcely be solved without large foreign credits and so raises the vexed political question of the international alignment of Spain. Political issues have not been resolved by General Franco's abolition of all other parties in favour of the Falange, the organisation of Spanish Fascism. The Republicans of various shades of Red have still to be reconciled, but General Franco does not yet feel strong enough to extend clemency and a general amnesty to groups comprising almost half the population. Large factions on his own Nationalist side, particularly the Tradionalist (Church) and Monarchist p'arties, are aggrieved at the exclusive position awarded the Fascists. Their Spanish individualism rejects totalitarian methods as hotly as do the Republicans. Some doubt has always existed as to the true stature of General Franco but it should be resolved by his answers to the many tests of statesmanship set by the present condition of Spain.