The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-04-13
Spanish Loyalists Accused OF Circulating
 False Prop aganda On Conditions In Spain
Reign of Terror Preceded Uprising of People Head
 ed By General Franco

American Friends of Spanish Democracy.
 For myself, I am trying hard to believe that this is merely the cul- imitation and master-stroke of the propaganda of the communist-con- trolled Spanish government spread far and wide throughout these
 The latest triumph in enlisting United States which has led astray many men in high places. Not less than fifteen million dollars of the $489, 100000 which was seized by the Red Government from the Bank ot Spain was sent to Fernando de los Rois, Spanish Ambassador at Wash ington for this purpose. How much more he received and others, we do not know. The government in Spain has staff of experts in Madrid who continually send out bundles ot prepared news" Perhaps, all this, coupled with accounts of the civil conflict, so biased that they would be boresome if they were not so deadly by reason both of their ac- ceptance and repetition,-perhaps, all this has brought about an in consistent attitude on the part of these high ecclesiastics whose im- piled protest against the horrors of the civil war came much too late to help save the majority of inno- cents already slaughtered.
 Abhor War
 Let it clearly be stated first, how ever, that the Catholic clergy who preach and are devoted to the peace of Christ are bound to and do abhor, to put it mildly, all bombing of non- combatants in war, whether that bombing is carried on either by General Franco's Nationalist forces or the Loyalist forces of the gov ernment of Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia. Furthermore, the Catholic clergy of the United States is just as poWerless from viewpoint of in- f1uence and intervention to prevent Franco'S bombardment of a forti- fled city's military objectives as it was, and hopelessly so, to prevent the Loyalist government and its Russian and French planes from bombing Granada and Seville with out any purpose in view other than terror. The Catholic clergy of the United States cannot stop the at tempt of the Nationaliss to desroy the munitions housed in Barcelona warehouses any more than its pow erful influence" was able to pro- tect the twenty thousand priests to say nothing of hundreds of nuns and seminarians, and three hundred thousand laymen Civilians, not SOL diers) who were slain and tortured to death by the Soviet-controlled Loyalists. The Catholic clergy of the United States, joining hands with the jealous members of the Amerl- can Friends of Spanish Democracy, could not halt the Insurgent bom- bardment of fortified city within the confines of which are 180 mili- tary posts, any more than it could (without the aid of the American Friends) obstruct the removal of the Catholic children of Bilbao to England from which many of them have returned and to the banks of the Riga in Soviet atheist Russia FROM WHICH THEY HAVE NOT RETURNED, God help THEM. Pope Plus XI made an appeal to Gen. eral Franco, which has received worldwide publicity, requesting that he moderate as much as is in his power the bombing of cities even for military purposes in order to spare the lives of civilians within them. The generalissmo has ac- cepted full responsibility for his