Franco and the Arabs
The Spanish mission which has been touring the Arab States has now returned to Madrid. Its reception in the Arab capitals has been officially quite warm, but unofficially there has been some bewilderment. What, it has not unreasonably been asked, has prompted General Franco's enthusiasm for the Arabs ? What (and this is more important) does he propose to offer as an earnest of his friendship ? The obvious answer is that he should offer reforms in Spanish Morocco; the Arabs themselves go further, and insist, needless to say, that what Spanish Morocco needs is independence. It is hardly likely that General Franco is prepared to offer Spanish Morocco even qualified independence, or, for that matter, that the people of Spanish Morocco would be able to make any good use of it if he did. Nevertheless the possibility that some gesture may be made towards the Spanish part of Morocco has made the French more anxious than usual about the future of the French part. It is true that in every way—administratively, economically and socially—the smaller Spanish zone lags behind its greater French neighbour; the comparative political calm of the Spanish zone is the calm of stagnation, not of content. However, any stimulus in Spanish Morocco must have inevitable repercussions across the border. It may be that the Spaniards are not primarily thinking in terms of Morocco at all. General Franco, who first won fame as a leader of African troops, doubtless has a personal interest in cultivating good relations with Moslem peoples. This would fit in, too, with the vision of Spain as the leading partner in a new Mediterranean grouping, detached, for bargaining purposes, from the Anglo-American bloc. Such a development is theoretically possible, though Arab suspicions do not seem to find Spanish leadership inherently more attrac- tive than British or American.
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