Three Years

Last week celebrations all over Spain reminded Spaniards that three years had passed since General Franco flew from the Canary Islands to Morocco to launch the Civil War. The anniversary of the revolt was a bright, cool day that ended a heat wave. At the lunch hour, factory workers listened to the reading of decrees announcing a "fiesta for the exaltation of labor" and promising wages high enough to give the "humble classes" access to culture. All over Spain there were prayers and parades, masses and mass meetings, chants and cheers for Francisco Franco; all over Spain there were uniforms--the khaki of the regular Army, red berets and blue shirts of the Falangists; white blouses and blue skirts of the Auxilio Social. Uniforms on an individualistic people, children marching and chanting in unison the Falangist slogan "Produce! Produce! Produce!" Madrid workmen, traditional Leftists, parading with hammers, wrenches, shovels, trowels, to show their respective trades--all this said that the old Spain was dead, dead as the 400,000 militiamen who were killed trying to keep its present Government from coming into power.

But if the old Spain died in the war, last week's celebrations made it plain that old Spaniards were still trying to run the show. Through 32 months of war and four months of peace, the same pre-war figures kept control of the State and the Army. No new military reputations were made on the Nationalist side of the war. Colorless, efficient General Franco was a familiar face in Spain long before the war, as were Generals Yague, Gomez Jordana, Aranda, Queipo de Llano, most of the old-line Monarchists, officeholders, Fascists, conservative Republicans who backed General Franco's revolt, grabbed posts in his Government. But Spain had changed more than her leaders. In three years she had lsot:

> All her gold reserve. Of $758,000,000 seized by the Loyalists when the war began, the Nationalist Government could hope to recover only $40,000,000 held in France.

> 700,000 killed in battle, 30,000 executed or assassinated, 250,000 by flight into France.

> 2,000 of her 3,000 locomotives, 20% of her textile mills, storage dams of her irrigation projects, power plants on the Ebro and the Alberche west of Madrid. There were no estimates for the number who died of wounds. But more than 1,000 air raids had smashed towns from Cartagena to Vinaroz, killed 15,000, virtually destroyed Teruel, Guernica. In the Spain that emerged from the war, jails were jammed all over the territory that Loyalists had held, bull-rings were transformed into concentration camps that held as many as 20,000 men apiece, while outside the cities camps were spotted so thickly in some areas that observers counted seven in the 120-mile stretch between Murcia and Valencia. The best hotel of Saragossa offered only soup and fish balls on its menu, and most restaurants served only rice, beans, a little meat. Sugar, legally priced at 10-c- a pound, sold from 50-c- to 70-c-; the cost of living doubled. Fisherman of southeast Spain, accustomed to fishing at night, were forbidden to put out to sea after dark, to prevent escapes to Africa. The wheat harvest was half its pre-war average, and although the mines and steel mills of Northern Spain, captured early in the war, were working overtime, the rise in exports of metal to England and Germany did not compensate for the disappearance of exports of olive oil, oranges, lemons, potatoes that once swelled Spain's foreign trade. Anarchists, Communists, Socialists, Republicans were in prison, in exile, or in hiding; strikes were forbidden; labor unions and opposition political parties broken up. But Spain needed 70,000 miles of roads, new textile machinery for wrecked mills, 3,000 new railway cars.

Old Faces. Last week this new and exhausted Spain proved to be too much for two old timers. Most spectacular figure among Francisco Franco's Generals was theatrical, ambitious, extravagant Gonzalo Queipo de Llano, radio General who mixed threats, fictitious accounts of victories and autobiography in his nightly broadcasts during the war. A Republican under the Republic, a Falangist under General Franco, but first and foremost an admirer of his own military exploits, Queipo de Llano was almost a parody of old-line Spanish militarists, ruled Andalusia as his personal province. As anniversary celebrations ended, so did General Queipo's power. At odds with the Falangists, incensed because the Falangist centre at Valladolid had been honored in victory celebrations above his personal capital of Seville, he thundered a demand for a strong military Government, damned politicians as "fools as breakable as clay toys," opined that soldiers should "shoo away" the new cliques of politicos. Two days later, the Government radio station announced briefly that Gonzalo Queipo de Llano had been relieved of his command.

Ablest of Nationalist generals, sickly, grey-haired Juan Yague, conqueror of Barcelona, said farewell to his Moroccan troops, spoke darkly against "masked and crafty" enemies at home, as official announcements had him awaiting a new post in a general Army reorganization, and rumor had him in jail.

Behind flights, arrests, rumors, was the fight of the Falange and the Army, a conflict older than the peace. During the war, General Franco merged 3,000,000 Falangists--extreme Fascists--and 800,000 Carlists--conservative monarchists--into the Falange Espanola Tradicionalista de los Jons, a top-heavy Fascist party modeled on those of Italy and Germany. Reorganized, cleaned out, it had 1,700,000 rank & file members and 20,000 "militant members" made up of Generalissimo Franco's general staff, commissioned and non-commissioned officers in his Army, hand-picked pro-Franco members of the Falange and the Carlists. Swamped in this sweeping reorganization were Monarchists, militarists, conservatives, who watched post after post go to Falangists, saw Spain's foreign policy drawn nearer the Rome-Berlin Axis. As last week's celebrations marked the passing of more old faces from the scene, they also made it clear that the new figures were emerging, not from the Army, but from the Falange that was crushing its traditional independence.

New Faces. Unknown in pre-war Spain, but conspicuous all over the country last week, were the amiable Italian features of Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano, who wound up his visit as the anniversary celebration began. Exhilarated after eight days of triumphal speechmaking, tours to battlefields, official visits and intrigue, Count Ciano stayed up till 3 a. m. at a brilliant party given in his honor in the walled Moorish gardens of the Alcazar in Seville--a palace that was once the favored retreat of royalty during Holy Week, a national monument under the Republic--took a warship for home as Queipo de Llano denounced climbing politicos.

Seldom seen in pre-war Spain, but even more conspicuous last week, were the thin, elegant features of Ramon Serrano Suner, fastest-climbing of Europe's modern politicos. Now 37, a lawyer educated in Italy, Senor Serrano's pre-war claims to distinction were his service as a Catholic deputy in the Cortes, his marriage to handsome Senorita Polo, sister of Senora Franco. His war record included an escape from Madrid's Model Prison, a trip to Germany to be feted by Nazis. But in the 18 months that he has been Minister of the Interior, Senor Serrano has outshone his plodding, unimaginative brother-in-law, stolen the show from the Spanish Generals whom he accompanied on a trip to Rome, become the leading figure of the Falangists. Ardently pro-Nazi, contemptuous of conservatives who see no point in scaring off possible British financial aid, he has boasted that Gibraltar would soon be returned to Spain, was more in evidence at receptions for Count Ciano than was General Franco.

As the celebrations ended last week, Ramon Serrano Suner won his greatest victories to date. Cabinet decree suddenly suspended further public meetings, called up groups of officers who had been demobilized at the end of the war, speeded the Army's reorganization. Forbidden were all gatherings except Catholic religious processions and services. Only with the written permission of Senor Serrano could meetings be held. Only if he agreed could descriptions of such meetings be published. Another blow for independent Generals and Carlists, Senor Serrano's decrees made it plain that the Falangists were winning the peace, that after three years the signs that e war had been fought were far more conspicuous than signs that it was over.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.