PASSING THROUGH SPAIN
Sm,-I have no right to question the authenticity of Mr. Lodwick's article on Spain, as far as it goes, which appears in your issue of July loth, but there are one or two points which cannot be left unconsidered in such a survey.
I do not wish to be rightly labelled either as a " disgruntled democrat " or a propagator of rumours about " political oppression," but did Mr. Lodwick visit the political prisons, for instance, and ascertain for him- self that they were not still full of great numbers of those who were eminently in favour of the republic? Has he forgotten those of their colleagues who share their fate not in Spain, but in their own con- centration camps in the Pyrenees and—though I have no definite evi- dence of these—possibly in other parts? Has he forgotten the more fortunate exiles, small units in the remaining free fighting forces and individuals who have sought to start again in the Americas and elsewhere?
I do not doubt that there may be a good many ex-republicans who find life in Spain today perfectly satisfactory, but is it permissible to say that a country is in a peaceful and prosperous condition because its dissenting elements are either suppressed or exiled? The contrast between the resistance in Spain and that in other autocratically ruled and fascist controlled countries makes the former seem in a more peaceful state, but it cannot justly be said that " the old political contention is deader than the deadest doornail."
Moreover, might I suggest that Mr. Lodwick found Spanish food good and inexpensive because the purchasing power of the Li in Spain is enormous at the present rates of foreign exchange, and therefore a meal which would seem to be had for a trifling sum to Mr. Lodwick would not seem inexpensive to a Spaniard?—Yours faithfully, S. I. C.
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