Evening star., 1939-01-27
After Barcelona, What?

After Barcelona, What?
Barcelona's fall and, with it, the
almost certain success of the rebel
Ion, rivet the worlds attention,
not so much on what betides for
War-devdstated Spain as on the
international repercussions of insur-
gent triumph. That triumph, max
Ing every allowance for the valor of
Moors and Spaniards who fought un-
der Francois banners, could never
have been achieved without Italian
Gnd German troops, Italian and Ger
man munitions and Italian and Ger
man aircraft and artillery 1t is, in
fact, the flags of the totalitarian die
tatorships that now wave over sur
rendered Barcelona. The great Cata-
lonian seaport is Fascism'S new out
post on the Mediterranean, and
Spain, under the aegis of the Rome
Berlin axis, will become Fascism's
first front on the Atlantic.
Those are the facets of current
events that carry an ominous warn
ing not only to Europe, but very di-
rectly to the Americas as we'll. That
General Frances allies will be salts
fed with mere thank you" for the
services rendered is unthinkable.
That they will seek to cash in on
their investment in the Spanish war
is almost inevitable. Unless Musso-
lini and Hitler have turned their
backs on the methods successfully
pursued at Munich, the world is on
the threshold of demands by the Fas-
cist axis on either Franco or France,
or both, designed to enrich Italy as
the Czecho-Slovak dismemberment
enriched Germany.
II Duce is notoriously chafng un-
der the humiliation of seeing the
Fuehrer as the only beneficiary of
totalitarian power policy. Mussolini's
refusal, despite pledges to Chamber
lain in the Anglo-Italian pact, to
withdraw italian troops from Spain
until insurgent victory was an ac-
complished fact, was no idle gesture
of defiance. 1t meant business. 1t
meant that Rome proposes to get
something out of the LoyaliSts' de-
feat. Italy may not ask Franco for
the Balearic Isles with any expecta-
ton OF getting them, but by putting
forth claim for Majorca and Mi
norca she would be in position to
present France with the disquieting
alternative of Italian naval and air
bases in mid-Mediterranean, directly
on the life line to the French African
Colonial Empire, or yielding to Ital-
Ian clamor for Corsica, or Tunisia, or
Djibouti, or all three. A France with
three Fascist frontiers would have to
make the choice.
In Paris they are already discus
sing this possible Italian "blackmail,"
and see in the calling of two classes
Of reservists, comprising $4,000 men,
for military training an earnest of
II Duces purpose promptly to make
hay in the new sun that has risen
over Spain. Germany's call of new
troop classes, effective February IS,
smacks of Nazi willingness to Coop
crate in Italys designs on France.
In giving the Daladier government
yesterday an impressive vote of conf
dence in its policy of no concessions
to Italy, the French Chamber signals
Frances determination to yield to
no pressure from Rome. The vote
followed an announcement by the
Premier that France and Great Brit
ain will take the necessary steps"
to meet an Italian threat if the Fas-
cist forces do not leave Spain at the
close of the civil war.
Contingencies that come vastly
closer to the Western Hemisphere
concern the fact that Latin America,
with the sole exception of Brazil and
Haiti, looks upon Spain as its mother
country. The Franco regime long ago
was recognized as the legal govern
ment of Spain by some American
republics. Insurgent supremacy will
unquestionably be exploited by the
new government and by its German
and Italian benefactors, who will be
in position to influence it. In his
1.-THE Ramparts We Watch" Major
George Fielding Eliot, United States
Army, retired, reproduces the words
uttered at Salamanca, on Septem-
ber IS, 1887, by DR.. Julio Urrutia,
Guatemalan Minister to the Franco
nationalist government, 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 Amer
lean Republics have for Spain
through the ties of custom, re-
1ipiOn and 1anp11ape prowS