The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-12-21
. BEHIND THE SCENESl IN WASHINGTON
 ev ROONEY DUTcHER-i
 Democrat Washington
United States Moves Warily In Spanish Tangle - Browns On Recognition - Spanish Ambassador Bears Down.
Democrat Washington Correspondent

-
 Washington, Dec. 21.-Ever since election, the Spanish war has been receiving increasing attention from all groups in Washington. From day to day new angles ap- pear which compel such attention. There is now little doubt that the floor of congress will be the scene for some bitter debate over Spain, with partisans of both sides in the conflict springing up to air their views.
 Most important of all considera- tions is the danger of a general European war, which peril, diplo- mats believe, has grown sAnce Franco's fascist army was stopped outside Madrid.
 A quick victory for Franco and the German Italian Portuguese
 bloc whose active aid made his previous progress possible might
 have minimized that danger for
 the time being.
 But the entry of foreign
 troops, including thousands of Germans and Italians, with the
 obvious CO operation of their gov ernments, has created g situation
 where only foreign invasion in
 force seems likely to tip the bal
 ance against the Spanish govern
 ment.
 Franco's failure to capture Ma drid has at least stayed off pres sure on this government to recog- nize his proposed military dicta- torship. At one time state de- partment officials felt they might soon have to face the issue.
 They were, however, more. con- cerned with the attitude of the Latin American republics and still are. If those nations would follow the German-Italian lead and recognize Franco, it would be a blow to the neutrality aims of the Buenos Aires conference and It h Roosevelt administration strong desire to keep this hemi- sphere out of war.
 U. s. Browns on Recognition
 While maintaining strict neu- trality, the Roosevelt-Hull policies and this governments course at Buenos Aires have tended to dis courage recognition of the insurgent regime. And state department of ficials privately express belief that if there had been no United States to consider, most Latin American governments would by now have recognized Franco.
 Officials point out that these
 countries are usually semi-feudal
 in character, their governments
 dominated by military cliques,
 wealthy landowners, and other groups such as supported the re-
 bellion in Spain.
 Minor complications have de-
 veloped for this government and
 doubtless there will be more. An
 instance is the case of the Span
 ish ship Navemar in New York
 harboF.
 Armed U. s. marshals on a coast guard cutter went out to her with a federal court order authorizing private owners to take possession, only to be told by the crew-and subsequently, by the Spanish embassy-that she had been taken over by the Spanish government, as wartime meas ure.
 Ambassador Bears Down" The Spanish ambassador, Fer nando de los Rios, has been digging himself in and making as many friends as possible in Washington. The embassy has been staffed again, following its desertion by most of the previous staff, and is able to entertain and spread such propa- ganda as is possible for an embassy in a foreign capital.
 Embassy influence is limited and mostly subterranean, but you
 may be sure the Spanish, Mexi-
 can, and Russian embassies on
 the one hand and the German and Italian embassies on the
 other are doing all they can for the two Spanish causes without getting their fingers burned.
 There is a heavy load of Latin diplomats here, nearly all of Span- ish descent, all of them intensely