Evening star., 1939-07-23

in the Bay of Biscay without ever feeling
sea-sick. The principle of the freedom
OF the seas was first established by them
in maritime treaty with Edward III
of England in 1851" Mr.. Steer adds:
Their provinces are among the richest
and are by far the most progressive of
Spain. Spain? There are a few things
the patient Basque will not tolerate, and
one is the suggestion that he is Spanish
For him. Iberian is the safer term. it
antiquity and Peninsula twilight in
which the Basque finds his source
The Basques never knew feudalism
They have always formed complete
democracy, voting each two years for the
junta. which met under the oak at
Guernica and framed the laws and ran
the machine of justice. Their language
is so ancient that many of its references
are related to the Stone Age. "Irur &C
bat is one of their mottoes-"three are
one tthree provinces) Nobody is
serf nobody master. All enjoy the
title of mobiles.
Since classes are an unknown guam
tity in the Basque experience, they can
not understand the modern class struggle
which accounts for so much of the poll
tics of the day. Thus they found in
comprehensive the motives in the Span
ish Civil War. The Catholic Basques
could sympathize with neither side
npnn1a for rey,onvoS
ernity have certain antiquated beliefs.
In the rural province of Alava, across
the Cantabrian Mountains from the two
maritime provinces, some Basques up
hold the theory of reincarnation.
Europe's Pioneer Whalers.
The Basques have always been original
and gone their own way. They were an
autonomous state within Spain until late
in the last century. They lived for the
sea and were among Europe's first whal-
ers. They fished off Newfoundland long
before Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
From the Middle Ages until $50 years
ago, Bilbao, San Sebastien and Hendaye
were the headquarters of Basque cor
sairs, who had contempt for the seas
dangers and who sailed their ships as
easily as fish swims
When Leovigild conquered the Basques
for the Visigoths, those invaders founded
city in memory of the event, Victoria
cum. Today that city is called Vitoria,
the capital of Alava. In 72O the Basques'
lands were consolidated as the Kingdom
ST Low I>,,%
people transferred their allegiance to the
King of Castillo, Alphonso, who swore
under the oak at Guernica to uphold the
liberties of the Basques. The King of
Navarro had aroused the Basques' anti
pathy by trying to dictate the choice
of chief magistrate, contrary to the
wish of their general assembly, or junta.
Successive kings of Spain took the oath
beneath the oak to uphold the Basque
liberties. In more recent times, the
kings-who were not kings" in Biscay
(Basque-lanO but only lords
omitted the journey to Guernica, but
they observed the peculiar Basque
wishes, until the arrival of the 18th GEN.
tury movement to liberalize the rule
of Spain.
The Basques opposed the liberal trend,
because it would mean that their own
customs would be at the mercy of
parliament representative of all Spain,
in which they would have but small
voice. No more would the absolute
monarch be the sworn protector of the
liberties of Biscay. So we have the pic
ture of the contradictory Basques oppos-
ing liberalism so that they might pre-
serve liberalism.
There are yet many Basques in Bis
cay, and when the bombing planes had
gone from the air over Guernica, the oak
was still standing. That is the sort of
symbolic encouragement which helps
keep President Aguirre and his agents
at their strange job. The BasQues have
q feeling for the occult.