Evening star., 1939-01-29

German technical aides have played a
material role in keeping Frances me-
chanized force, afield and in the air, in
battle worthy condition There are re-
current reports that Ceuta, birthplace
of the rebellion, has been fortified by
German ordnance experts who mounted
heavy Krupp guns in positions which
command Gibraltar, the sparkplug of
Great Britains Mediterranean system.
Swap in Prospect.
One theory of Hitlers interest in
Fascist-dominated Spain is that Ger
many, out of gratitude for Italy's sup
port at Munich, is willing to let her reap
all the fruits of Frances victory, pro-
vided Mussolini supplements his self
sacrifice on the occasion of Austrian
Anschluss and Czecho-Slovak dismem-
berment by giving the Nazis an utterly
free hand in Central and Eastern Eu-
rope A free hand would unquestion-
ably involve Italian military support if
the Reich's Drang mach Osten should
involve Germany in war with Soviet
Russia for domination of the Ukraine
ito make us Germans rich beyond the
dreams of avarice," as the Fuehrer blurt-
ed at Nuremberg in September, 1936-is
unquestionably the direction which Hit
ler's program of territorial aggrandize-
ment will take, unless Lithuania, Po-
land Rumania or Hungary, now for all
practical purposes within the Nazi orbit,
should become obstreperous and not al
low the Reichs war machine to goose
step and bomb its way unimpeded to
the shores of the Black Sea, mopping up
the grainfields of Hungary and the oil
fields of Rumania en- route.
Germany, it goes without saying, con-
templates without undue chagrin the
possibility of Franco Italian war. Wash
ington has even heard a suggestion that
Hitler has proposed to Chamberlain that
Great Britain and the Reich should let
the French and the Italians fight it
out between themselves-a transparent
scheme for breaking up the Anglo
French entente cordiale, dream no
toriously close to the NaI heart.
The United States is by no means
disinterested bystander in the remapping
of Europe along above indicated lines.
Should Barcelona pave the way to an
other Munich-ie., to supine submis-
sion by the democratic governments
to the totalitarian power policy of ag-
gression by intimidation-this country
might speedily find itself confronted by
sinister possibilities. Never to be for
gotten is the fact that all of Latin
America, with the exception OF Brazil
and Haiti, continues to look upon Spain
as the mother country. Although pop
ular sympathies in many of the sister
American republics were with the Loyal
lists, several of their respective govern
ments made no concealment of partisan
ship for Franco. They happen to be
those countries in Central and South
America in which Fascism has deep
roots and is vigorously fomented by
German and italian anti-American prop
aganda.
Envoy Points to Friendship.
In his "The Ramparts We Watch"
Maj. George Fielding Eliot, United States
Army, retired, reproduces the words ut
tered at Salamanca, on September is,
1887, by DR.. Julio Urrutia, Guatemalan
Minister to the Franco nationalist gov
ernment, who said in part:
My greeting is intended not only for
Guatemala, but also for all the other
republics that make up the Spanish
American countries, in whose names
I take the liberty of speaking. The
friendship that the American re-
publics have for Spain through the
ties of custom, religion and language
grows closer and closer as time
marches on. For this reason believe
in a future and common destiny for
all Spanish-speaking countries.
Among Spain's possessions are the Ca
nary Islands off the Northwestern African
coast. In italian or German hands, as
an air, naval or military base, the Ca
naries would be pistol pointed at the
Americas. Maj. Eliot reminds us that
the outer end of our chain of bases at
a point in the Caribbean, say at Bar
bados, would be about 500 miles farther
from any South American port below
Cape San Rogue, at the corner" of Bra
zil, than would the outer end of the
European chain at the Canaries or the
Cape Verdes.
During the last couple Of years. Ger
many's transoceanic airline, Lufthansa,
has made repeated flights from the
Azores, which are close to Spain's Ca
nary Islands, to both the United States
and South America. From the Azores
to Brazil is 2700 miles. Those islands
are nearer to the mainland of this coun-
try than they are to Brazil. On September
13 last Lufthansa's giant flying boat
Nordstern flew from the Azores to Long
Island in the record time of 13 hours IS
minutes. Exactly year before dn Sep
tember, 1880 Lufthansa's Nordmeer
completed the first Azores-Brazil round
trip. That the Nazis have far-flung air
plans, based on possession of or conces-
sions in the Portuguese or Spanish in
sular groups in the North Atlantic, of
Africa, is not to: be doubted. 50,
| When South African Defense Minister