The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING “LUCEO NON URO” FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1937. Rebel Plans For A New Spain

Southland Times, Issue 23181, 23 April 1937, Page 6

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING “LUCEO NON URO” FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1937. Rebel Plans For A New Spain

General Franco’s first reference to a restoration of the monarchy in Spain was quoted in a cable message published yesterday. “When we complete our spiritual and material advance,” he was reported to have said, “we shall not close the door to the possibility of reinstating the regime which forged our national unity and history.” In August of last year ex-King Alfonso denied that he had been helping the rebel cause, although he made no secret of his sympathy with General Franco. “Once the struggle is won,” cabled the correspondent who reported the interview at that time,. “and Bolshevism overthrown, only then will it be time for a decision by the King .... Later, if the choice is for a monarchy, the King- is ready.” That was eight months ago, and since then the war has dragged its weary course: the rebels have been pushed back on several fronts, and Madrid is still in the hands of the Government. Foreign interference has become an accepted fact, and the constant reports about Italian troops, German artillery and aeroplanes and Russian tanks, combined with a tendency in British and American journalism to look upon the struggle as a war of ideologies, have made it difficult to think of Spain in the future without reference to Fascism and armies of occupation. Recent cable messages have reported a willingness to withdraw on the part of the Italians, but nobody who has followed the see-saw announcements of Signor Mussolini will believe this until withdrawal is an accomplished fact. The New Statesman and Nation recently quoted a French weekly journal, La Lumiere, which described the measures alleged to have been taken by Italy to avoid anything but a nominal withdrawal. “The Italian volunteer,” says The New Statesman and Nation, “is given a Spanish passport as soon as he embarks, and from that moment he becomes a subject of the ‘National Government’ of Burgos, in the eyes of the law as laid down or interpreted by Franco and Mussolini. Thus, if ever an agreement were reached for the withdrawal of foreigners fighting in Spain, Italy would blandly declare that none of her nationals are concerned; they are all Spaniards.” This “National Government” of Burgos, it must be ’’admitted, has control of more than half of Spain; and in spite of General Franco’s awkward alliances he still maintains that he is working solely for his country’s good. In a recent interview with Major F. Yeats-Brown, known to fame as the author of “Bengal Lancer”, General Franco was reported to have spoken in mild but definite, terms of what he feels to be his mission in Spain. The interview was published in The Observer, a London Sunday newspaper which has consistently supported the rebel cause; and in some ways it is a masterpiece of naivete. On certain points General Franco was definite. “We shall not return to the parliamentary system,” he said. . Our system will be

based on Portuguese or Italian models .... The regime will not be of a particularly military character.” Later he said: “We are fighting for a State which will be like one great family, without overlords or serfs, plutocrats or proletarians.” Speaking of his own discoveries in Spain, Major Yeats-Brown quoted a village inn keeper who described his experiences when the Moors appeared. “He was among those who stayed, somewhat anxiously. The Moors marched in, bringing their own food, which they shared with the inhabitants. Afterwards, they gave the children Moroccan sweetmeats, and invited everyone to a tea-party and sing-song.” Major Yeats-Brown is quite willing to accept an inn keeper’s story as evidence. “These stories .... ring true,” he writes, “and make common sense.” Unfortunately the laws of evidence make no allowance for individual definitions of common sense, especially in relation to a struggle which has released the forces of hatred and fear. And reports of this kind make strange reading in comparison with other reports from the rebel territory. General Queipo de Llano is also a member of the Burgos Junta, and about the time that ex-King Alfonso was insisting that he had no share in the rebellion he was giving an interview to a Spanish journalist who was acting as correspondent for a Venezuelan newspaper, El Universal. This interview has just been reprinted in The New Statesman and Nation, and is worth quoting here as a commentary on the report from Major Yeats-Brown. “When I occupied Seville,” said the General, “. . . . I had to impose discipline by inflicting severe penalties. It is quite possible that we may have executed 3000 Marxists in this province. The result was a radical excision of the infection.”

After giving further instances of rebel mildness he said: “Once the war is over, and when we have completely eliminated the Marxists, you will see that our Government will be a model of mercy and pity.” Major Yeats-Brown is a supporter of the rebels. But the Spanish journalist must also have been a rebel: otherwise he would not have been interviewing the General in Seville. Even if the truth lies somewhere between the two versions, it is sufficiently clear that ex-King Alfonso would return to a Spain merely quiescent after its long agony, and that the struggle would be renewed as soon as the country began to recover from the “radical excision of . . . infection.”