Evening star., 1939-03-12
Spanish Recognition Problem
Vexes Our State Department
Three Guideposts Available in Considering Francois
Claims but None Is Condition and
Actual Practice Has Varied
Bv Blair B0Ues.

bOHeS.
in vogue. Charles Cheney Hyde, in his
international Law, Chiefly as Inter-
preted and Applied by the United States
remarks:
I'm more recent years there appears
to have been reversion to position
somewhat like that taken by Mr.. Seward
and his immediate successors. Without
failing to require assurance of the COM
potency Of new government to perform
international obligations Importance has
been attached to its respect for the con-
stitutional regime" Then Mr. Cheney
quotes the telegram which Secretary of
State Knox sent to our Minister in the
Dominican Republic January %, 1912:
1T is the practice of the Government
of the United States to refuse to recog-
nize any Government resulting from a
revolution unless it appears to represent
the will of the people and to be able and
willing to respond to its international
obligations"
Wilson Provided Moral Issue,
A year after this telegram's dispatch.
President Wilson, in dealing with a ma
ton formerly Spanish, denied recognition
to the Huerta government in Mexico on
the novel ground of moral disapproval.
The moral issue was embraced with even
greater and more lasting fervor a few
years later, when the United States
adopted a policy of non-recognition of
Soviet Russia which continued for IS
years.
Secretary of State Colby upheld his
position regarding the Soviet first on the
ground that, to use DR. Hyde's phrases
the existing rulers of that country were
not In power by the will or consent of anv
considerable portion of the Russian peo-
pie, but represented a small minority
thereof, and by means of savage oppres
sion retained control" Second. saws DR.
Hyde, 1T was pointed out that the exist
ing regime was based upon the regatiop
OF every principle of honor and good
faith, and every usage and convention
underlying the whole structure of inter
national law; the negation, in short, Of
every principle upon which it is possible
10 base harmonious and trustful rela-
'lons' whether OF nations or individuals.
Mr.. Colbys test probably will not be
appheo by Mr.. Hulls State Department
10 franco Spain. Active international
soul-searching by Washington is not 50
much practiced as it was once. But the
TACT is that Mr. Hulls State Department
Goes not know exactly what it is going
10 DO IN regard to Spain 1t cannot
tell whether it is going to recognize {?
partly conquering Franco, or whethe-.
the republican government will abdicatc
Abdlcatlon could mean that there VIZ
only one government left in Spain, tt
Nationalist. Would American recogr
ton Immediately follow this turn {.
events?
suggestions that Gen. Franco, like his
totalltarlan hackers. Germany and Italy.
is interested in Fascist rapport wit,
Latin America may cause the Unite,
States to proceed with extraordinar
caution in coming to diplomatic tern
with Ell Caudillo. Recognition nev,
implies sympathy with a government
system; it is simply practical basis fc
conducting the worlds business. Br
nevertheless recognition has a polite
value, and this country would be ur
likely to injure it's own Western Her
lsphere cause for the sake of admittil
that Frances Spain was in the fam;
Of nations.
DIR. los Rios Status.
The question at the State Department
concerns not only our relations with
Spain but our relations with DR.. los Rios.
the Spanish republican Ambassador
here. He remains the accepted Spanish
envoy to the United States so far as
the United States is concerned. But
what is he if his government disappears?
mat is something being asked at the
state Department. Does he stay on at
the Embassy so long as we have not
recognized Franco, representing nobody?
The problem is further complicated by
the fact that We are in the position of
having an Embassy for Spain which is
not on Spanish soil. Since the very
outbreak of the civil war it has been
at st. Jean de Luz. France, 10 miles from
the Spanish border
In July, 1886, when the revolt against
the republic began, Mr.. Bowers, who
was sent to Spain by President Roose-
welt in 1888. was spending the summer
on the beach along the Spanish North
ern Coast. His way back to Madrid
was blocked by the followers of Franco.
So he moved to st. Jean de Luz which
soon became the seat of many other
diplomatic missions to Spain. There, on
the instructions of the State Department,
he established his base of operations.
Consular Officers STAY.
So far as they could stay in Spain,
our consular officers, with exeouaturs
from that country, remained there. To-
day there are American consuls in four
cities within the Nationalist lines
Barcelona, Malaga, Seville and Vigo, and
in one city in republican territory, Va
lencia. But the consuls are not diplo-
matte officers and their presence in Ma
tionalist areas is in no way involved with
recognition of the de jure sovereignty of
the military occupant of the territory,
Franco, who, to the governments which
recognize him, is not the military but
the political occupant
The most recent direct diplomatic re-
lation we have had with the republic
ended with the fall of Barcelona into the
hands of the Nationalists. Walter Thur
ston, counsellor of Embassy at st. Jean de