FOREIGN TROOPS IN SPAIN [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]
Sta,—Surely the number of foreign troops in Spain has now become a question of secondary importance! General Franco now has a large and well-trained army, controlled by the prototalitarian Phalangists, if not by German and Italian experts. All that he requires, therefore, to fight in a war against the Great Democracies—and it is probable that his Axis friends will insist upon this in the event of a European conflict—is arms. It has already been admitted in the House of Commons that whatever the number of troops she has withdrawn Italy has left her arms behind ; but what has not been discussed are the huge quantities of arms which are still being sent into Spain from Germany, and of the German- controlled armament factories equipped with new German machinery in the North-Western territories of the Peninsula. The sooner we realise that Spain is, in fact, becoming a totalitarian base of attack against us, the better will it be for our Empire security. Quibbles about the number of Axis troops in Spain at the present time remind me of Nero's musical interlude while Rome was burning.—Yours faithfully,
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