$25 Million for Franco's Navy

The once proud Spanish navy lost its Armada in 1588, and any other pretensions to glory in 1898, when it was soundly beaten by the U.S. Spanish sea power is, in fact, mostly a collection of ancient junk, with only one big ship, the 18-year-old, 10,670-ton cruiser Canarias. Franco's government does have, however, eleven destroyers less than five years old, plus eight frigates, six new corvettes and 15 good minesweepers. It also has 1,500 miles of coastline. Last week, as part of its program of building up bases in Spain, the U.S. agreed to give Franco $25 million to modernize his fleet with new armament, fire-control and submarine-detection equipment.

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