Spain and the Axis Some recent pronouncements on Spanish policy
have strengthened the hope that Spain is not finally committed to the Axis and will struggle to preserve the neutral status which corresponds to all her real interests. In Berlin General Aranda has stated that Spain will incur no obliga- tions abroad except commercial and cultural ones ; while the Caudillo himself, General Franco, has declared that Spain must concentrate on internal reconstruction. Such statements are encouraging ; yet they weigh little in the balance against the facts of German and Italian influence in Spain and especially the key positions occupied by General Franco's allies. It is not hard to imagine that he has the wish and the will to free himself from the Axis ; it is harder to believe that he has the power. He is under heavy obligations to his allies, and, as Sefior Serrano Sufier has recently declared, Spain is too poor to overcome her difficulties by her own resources. Moreover, whatever General Franco may wish, the most powerful political force in his country, the Falanga, sees the most natural solution of Spain's diffi- culties in union with the Axis Powers in their struggle against what Senor Sufier also now describes as " encircle- ment " by the democracies.
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