RATIONED MADRID

Opotiki News, Volume III, Issue 355, 25 October 1940, Page 4

RATIONED MADRID

THE NAZI SHADOW * “BRITAIN OUR LAST HOPE” In Madrid to-day the cigarette ration is 40 per week, but for men only. Women -do not qualify for any ration. Bread is scarce, unleavened, and mostly bran, according to an Englishman recently returned, to England from Spain. He described Lfe in a Spain upon which the shadow of the swastika is falling. Coffee is undrinkable, string unobtainable. Petrol costs nearly 10s a gallon, newspapers are pro-Nazi, and postage stamps are used as currency.

He declared that the man in the street was indifferent to the antiBritish political propaganda instigated by Serrano Suner, secretary to the “Falange” and brother-in-law to General Franco. The poster “Gibraltar Is Ours!” which adorns almost every public building makes the average Spaniard shrug his shoulders. He has scant respect for the Italians and smiles contemptuously when told that they “won the revolution for him.” He saw the Italians in act.on. On the other hand he respects, without liking—and with some fear—the Germans. And he appreciates the aims for which Britain is fighting. More than one Spaniard has said when he was sure offic.al ears- were not listening: “Britain is our last hope.”