THE MEDICAL UNIT FOR SPAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23108, 6 February 1937, Page 7

THE MEDICAL UNIT FOR SPAIN

10 THE EDITOR Sir,—ln your issue of February 4 appeared the following report from the Vatican newspaper in Rome:—"Since the beginning of the Spanish conflict 11 bishops and many priests—or between 40 and 50 per cent, of the entire Spanish clergy—have been murdered by the Reds." Now, I take it that these Reds are the people whom Crs Silverstone, Neilson, and M'Millan, and also our worthy Mayor, have taken under their wing; and it is on behalf of and for the assistance of these same Reds that these councillors were exhorting the more gullible people of Dunedin the other evening to spend their hardearned savings in sending a medical unit to Spain. a noble project —one worthy of the receipt of the Grand Cross of the Order of Ogpu! ' It would be unreasonable to assume that these councillors who have such marked Red sympathies are necessarily themselves Red, but if it were, and if we were to follow such an assumption a little further, we should require only a few more Reds, Communists, or Bolshevists (they are all the same) on our City Council, and they would be in sufficient strength to adopt in full the practice of their mentors.

Some little time ago Mr Silverstone was asked a straight-out question concerning his personal attitude towards Communism. I may be wrong, but to the best of my knowledge he never answered that question. I suggest that the £l2 collected the other evening would be put to a better and more deserving cause if given to the local Unemployment Fund. Perhaps, however, the Reds in Spain are reciprocating by organising a collection for our Dunedin unemployed. —I am. etc., Non-Communist No. 2. February 5.

TO THE EDITOP Sir, —Had the speakers who addressed the meeting on Sunday night last in connection with medical aid for Spain confined their advocacy to the sending of aid to the unfortunate Spanish people irrespective of the side on which they were fighting. no exception could be taken to their remarks. But the different speakers lost no time in assuming a partisan attitude; in other words, they put themselves out of bounds in declaring that any help to be sent would be to the Spanish Government. All those who are opposed to the present regime in Spain are dubbed Fascists and rebels. Those who speak so flippantly about Spanish rebels conveniently ignore the fact that, long before General Franco and his so-called rebels were heard of, hundreds of churches and other religious institutions were burned, and priests and nuns were butchered in the most cruel fashion. Even in Pagan Rome a parallel could scarcely be found. The one man who warned the Spanish Government of the impending conflict was coolly kidnapped and murdered—all, I expect, in the name of democracy. The writer holds no brief for Fascists or Hitlerites, as both are destructive forces and will eventually bring about their own downfall, but to brand those who have taken up arms in defence of their hearths and homes and Christianity is nothing more nor less than subterfuge. The mixture that comprises the Spanish Government, I understand, has a majority of 46 out of a House of some 400 odd members. All they hold in common is their hatred of everything in the nature of Christianity, and of the Catholic Church in particular Those who shed so many crocodile tears on behalf of democracy in Spain are particularly silent about the Moscow agents, who arc the Spanish Gov-,

ernment. Their propaganda has been sown broadcast in Spain for some time. This slimy octopus has sown the wind, and now the whirlwind is being reaped in blood and tears. Mr H. Belloc, in his works, predicted this several years ago. The Russian antigod campaign has taken practical effect. Had the brave Spanish people stood idly by and allowed everything sacred to the name of Spain to be trampled under foot they would have deserved nothing better than the name of miserable cowards. The bully is always the greatest coward. Once he gets some of his own medicine, then he starts to squeal. This is exactly v/hat is happening now. Whatever the number of Fascists and Nazists with General Franco may be. they are not there for the good of their health alone but to seize every opportunity which they can turn to advantage. Among the conflicting forces, it is to be hoped that General Franco may succeed in bringing order out of chaos. Russian Communism is spending vast sums spreading its propaganda over every country, and at the same time, if we can read between the lines its teeming millions are starving. Their lumber concentration camps are worse than the worst days of the Southern States of the American slave trade. Modern capitalism has built a house of cards that is tumbling very fast. The hard part is that the innocent suffer most in the day of reckoning. Meanwhile the Mayor of Dunedin and his associates should state plainly^where they stand in regard to the Russia" Red element. The electors would then know how to protest when the next municipal election comes along.—l am. e t c Anti-Communist.