Esprit de Corps

From "private sources" in London, a New York Timesman got this masterpiece of antiseptic journalese last week:

". . . At an Epiphany dinner given by General Francisco Franco in the Royal Palace in Madrid to the heads of diplomatic missions . . . U.S. Ambassador [Carlton J. H.] Hayes, who has usually got along amicably enough with General Franco, got into a talk with the General that was said to have developed disagreeably. It was reported to have begun when General Franco remarked to the Ambassador that all Free French were Communists. Dr. Hayes was said to have replied that this was an incorrect assumption that could be laid to German propaganda.

"General Franco was reported to have insisted that his information was that Algiers was a hotbed of Communism and to have concluded: 'I am not a man to spread German propaganda.'

"According to other diplomats present, it is learned privately here, Dr. Hayes flushed with anger at General Franco's manner as well as at what he said and momentarily considered walking out from the party. This would have produced an international incident. Other diplomats, including [Britain's] Sir Samuel Hoare, were reported to have gathered around Dr. Hayes until he regained his composure."

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