Victory List

Immutable privilege of dictators, within their borders, is that of changing past and current history to suit themselves. Last week in Rome, Fascist Italy celebrated an "Italo-Spanish solidarity day" to whip up enthusiasm for the Spanish Rightist cause. Presence of Italian "volunteers'" with scarred faces, empty sleeves, lost legs, lucidly illustrated Italy's participation in the war. Representing Generalissimo Franco was one-eyed, one-armed General Jose Millan Astray, founder 3 of Spain's Foreign Legion.

Total Italian casualties in Spain were modestly placed by the Fascist press at 2,023 killed, 6,996 wounded, 359 captured by Leftists. More indicative of Dictator Mussolini's power was his new interpretation of what happened in the famed Guadalajara battle of March 1937, between Italians and Spanish Leftists. Described by U. S. and British newshawks on the scene as a panicky rout for the Italians, it now appears in Italy's press as one of the country's five "great victories" of the Spanish Civil War.*

*The others: Malaga, Bilbao, Santander, Tortosa.

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