Franco's Spain
SIR,—It is strange that the Western Powers, who by their recent vote at Lake Success have now recognised the strategic importance of Spain, do not consider that, by allowing Russia always to appear as the international champion of the Spanish people against the oppressor Franco, they are in reality pushing Spain into Russia's arms, by adding disillusion to the already existing misery and frustration in that unhappy country.
This summer I was invited to visit friends in San Sebastian. Staying with a family and speaking the language well, I had a chance to see Spain from the inside, as lived in by the man in the street and, above all, by the woman in the market. Bread is still rationed, dark and unpalatable, and even the largest ration of 350 grammes a day for the poorest people is insufficient, because they are unable to afford any- thing else. But there is plenty of white bread on sale in baskets outside the market, for those who can afford it, at 12 pesetas a kilo. Even at the present rate of exchange,'2s. for about 2 lb. of bread seems exces- sive beside our 50. But when the average working man's wage of some 20 pesetas daily is compared with an estimated I5s. a day in this country, the proportion of 99. for a loaf is inflation beyond the wildest nightmares of our economists. And the white-collar worker is not much better off. An offite clerk is lucky if he earns 1,000 pesetas (s.) a month, of which about 25 per cent, goes to the Government in various deductions. Eggs are 30-35 pesetas a dozen—a day and a half's wages. Butchers' shops are open only two days a week, and in any
case meat costs 40 pesetas a kilo—two days' pay. Ham at a kilo is beyond the means of an ordinary family. Alubias, the Spanish haricot and formerly the main dish of the poor, are now too expensive at 13 pesetas a kilo, more than half-a-day's earnings. No. wonder that as soon as you sit down outside a café, pitifully thin children creep up and wait patiently in the hope that you will give them some scraps, like sparrows in Hyde Park, .except that they are not so well fed. And evidence of the rhvages of-tuberculosis is so plain that it does not need the continuous official collections, for funds to combat it, to draw attention to the gravity of the problem.
Food and bow to pay for it was the main topic of all the families I visited, mostly middle-class. I did not hear any of the much- publicised criticisms of British condemnations of Franco, which are supposed to arouse Spanish pride and indignation. On the contrary, I could not tell them enough about England, the far-off unattainable goal of so many. Basques and S aniards, who always try to hear the B.B.C. reception is very poor and appears to Spanish programme, even be interfered with.
Like so much in Spain, the bread question is just another racket. Flour for the rationed bread is used instead to make white bread and fancy cakes, and the district officials collect a proportion of the bakers' profits. Then there is the train racket ; apart from the black market in long-distance train tickets, I experienced another version for local trains. The ticket office in Irun suddenly refuses to issue any tickets for the San Sebastian train, and since anyone travelling without a ticket must pay double fare, all the people waiting to go home from their work must either pay up or wait for a later train, with no guarantee that the same thing will not happen again. The proceeds are divided between the booking-office clerks and the ticket-collector. It is a well- known, everyday occurrence, but no one dares to make any official protest.
For a Spaniard to travel outside Spain is a matter of the greatest difficulty. The door of the prison called Spain opens only reluctantly, after much greasing of palms ,Ind is ever ready to close firmly again. A Basque doctor who for family reasons decided to return and risk the validity of Franco promises of leniency had his passport withdrawn when he applied for permission to come back to England to tend his dying brother, a British subject. Eleven years after the end of the civil war, long and tedioas formalities and much bribing are still needed before the aged and. inoffensive parents of exiles can obtain a permit allowing them to cross into France for no more than forty-eight hours to meet sons they have not seen since the evacuation of Bilbao in 1937. There is an Iron Curtain acrpss the Pyrenees, too.
Compared with the war in Korea, the troubles of Spain are perhaps not news. They are certainly not new ; it is sometimes forgotten that the peoples of Spain -have been forced to endure them for fourteen years. The miracle is that they are still so courteous and hospitable. Franco propaganda is trying to exploit the gravity of the world situation to gain support for his regime, by ,presenting it as the bulwark of the West against Communism, tnategically vital in any conflict between East and West. The reality is that his corrupt, undemocratic regime constitutes the real danger of Communism, which only germinates and flourishes where there are hunger, want and injustice. That it has not taken hold already is due, not to Franco, but to the innate independence and faith of the people themselves. But the desperate welcome any liberator when the opportunity offers, without asking whence he comes or what is his aim, until perhaps too late, as other countries healthier than Spain have found out.—Yours faithfully, DOROTHY SHEPHERD.
is, some time now since I advocated in your columns the wisdom of establishing good relations with Spain by a kank recognition of Franco as the de facto ruler of that country. We did not do so and, therefore, it is only natural that he should now be taking advantage of our present embarrassments, just as the Egyptians are trying to do with regard to the Suez Canal. No more deadly blow could be delivered either to our prestige or to our commerce than for us to lose command of the Mediterranean Sea and, having served afloat there for three years in the Royal Navy, it is possible for me to say unhesitatingly that, if either of the two entrances to it should ever pass entirely out of our control, we must descend to die position of a second-rate Power in world affairs. Surely then it is not too late even now to establish friendly relations with a Power whose ruler has certainly come to stay, however doubtful this might have appeared some years ago.—Yours truly, J. H. SHACKLETON BAILEY.
The Vicarage, St. Michaels-on-Wyre. Preston.
Previous page
