SPAIN'S DON SUNER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24421, 5 October 1940, Page 19

SPAIN'S DON SUNER

AN INGRAINED FASCIST INFLUENCE WITH FRANCO LEADER OF THE FALANGISTS Don Ramon Ferrano Suner, Spain's Minister of the Interior, is as strongly pro-Fascist as he is anti-British, and is obviouslv actively employed at present in working for an early abandonment of Spain's aloofness in favour of becoming an ally of the Axis Powers. According to the American publication. Time, a British offer to help finance Spanish reconstruction in return for Spain's continued neutrality held some interest for General Franco, who is faced bv an internal debt of some £500,000,000. but after the German successes in France Suner persuaded him to change his mind, and it was not long before he had endorsed the claim to Gibraltar, made bv the extreme Fascists, plus an unspecified piece of North Africa. It seems that if there is anything to be picked up while Britain is involved in the struggle with Germany and Italy, there is a section of Spaniards strongly minded to be in the hunt. Control of Vital Services Senor Suner is an important personage for the following reasons: He heads the Ministry of Propaganda, and so determines what Spaniards learn. He controls the police and so determines who shall live free or in prison. He heads the Ministry of Government (Interior), which now includes the Ministry of Communications, and so controls the post office, telephone, telegraph and cable systems. He heads the Falange Espanola Tradicionalista and so controls Spain's sole political party, ifs 2,000,000 members. 800,000 associated female Falangists, and 600.000 Falange youths. This man gained his Fascist ideas from Italy, where he was educated. Under the Republic he was an obscure lawver. but when Franco became leader of the Rightist revolution he saw his chance to impose his ideas on the "politically uneducated " generalissimo. A man of driving nervous energy, he organised into the Falange the various elements which supported Franco, and when the war had ended he managed to keep these elements from falling into disputes which would endanger the new regime. Follower of Ciano In internal policy Suner has some ideas described as far to' the Left of those of the people who first supported the revolution, but he takes care to see that every concession to liberalism and social service is also made to strengthen the position of the Falange. In foreign policy he follows his good friend Count Ciano, Italy's Foreign Minister. "With 100,000 to 150,000 tons of petrol in storage," Time says, "Spain could probably wage a short war. If Britain withstood a blitzkrieg and dragged the war through the winter, Spain would soon be helpless. But if Britain begins to totter, Don Ramon Serrano Suner might well push Franco beyond the verge of battle."