SPANISH REGIME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25958, 26 September 1945, Page 5

SPANISH REGIME

LASKI’S DENUNCIATION SATELLITE OF THE AXIS LONDON, Sept. 24. A violent attack on General Franco, whom he described as a “ fawning satellite of Hitler and Mussolini,” was made by Professor Laski in a broadcast to the United States. Professor Laski demanded the withdrawal of official recognition of the Franco regime, and he declared that but for the dishonest Anglo-American policy of non-intervention the Spanish Republic would still be in power to-day. Professor Laski, who emphasised that he was speaking in a purely personal capacity, broadcast over the American Broadcasting Company’s network. “ Our peoples did not make the immense sacrifices in the war to perpetuate either a tyranny like Franco’s or an unedifying mythology like a Vatican-sponsored King of Spain trying hastily to learn the vocabulary of the Four Freedoms,” he said. “It was fear of putting arms in the hands of the Spanish people, not goodwill, which kept Spain formal and neutral during the war. I do not share the view of those who think we should be grateful because at the critical time Franco did not complicate our strategic problems in the Mediterranean. He was neutral because he was afraid, but at a nod from his Nazi and Fascist masters he would have laid Spain at The cause of Republican Spain had come to be to this generation what the liberation of the Russian people was in the harsh days of the Czarist tyranny, said Professor Laski. British and American statesmen, who must have known that Hitler and Mussolini were preparing Spain as a theatre of experiment .for a second world war, timidly and hypocritically allowed the Spanish people to be crucified in the service of appeasement. The grim struggle of the second World War ended in victory, but executions in Spain still continued on a massive scale. Freedom-loving supporters of the Republic were still imprisoned and tortured. Warning that the continuance of the Franco regime must inevitably lead to a new and more barbarous war, Professor Laski appealed to the United Nations to aid the Republicans to overthrow Franco.