The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-06-01
Walter WillcIleII
In Ne1C York


THE LAST OF THE KING MAX
ERs-JUAN MARCH
Next to A. Hitler, Senior Juan
March Is the most dangerous man
IN Europe today. II his name means
nothing to you now, It Is only be-
cause his talent for keeping him.
self out Of the papers is as great
els his knack of Sticking up q dis
honest million 6silars and his genius
for spreading misery in the world
-. More @han any other one man
not excsE5eing his pal, Hitler-Juan
March was responsible for touching
Of NE explosion called World War
u
Today Juan March, the richest
man IN Spain, shares control Of the
1berian Peninsula with the big boys
who own the Nazi cartels His
old, greedy fingers are In the mines
and factories that supply Spanish
coal, iron, copper, wolfram and mer-
curry to the German war machine
=, He controls O big chunk of the
neutral Spanish merchant fleet,
which carries Nazi agents and Fal-
angst propaganda to South Amer
lea and returns with oil and gas
for the planes and tanks Of the
Nazi Wehrmacht He leases
scores Of waterfront properties to
the Nazis for use as secret submar-
ME and refueling bases March
now lives In Lisbon--trying to make
London and washington believe he
Is a poor, helpless exile.
Juan Marchs agents and stooges
however, are in Spain and
other places. His lawyer, Tomas
Peire. still has an office in Madrid.
And one Of Pieres partners In this
Madrid firm Is young Rafael de
Jordana, son Of Frances foreign
minister Early In January,
Peire and young Jordana arrived IN
New York on mission from Juan
March. Peire proceeded to hold a
number OF secret conferences with
General Juan Beigbeder Of the
Spanish Army. Beigbeder, an old
pal Of March, worked with the
Germans against the French in
Morocco in World War A year
ago, Beigbeder came here as a
Franco official. Now he claims to
have broken with Franco, says he Is
working for the restoration OF the
Spanish monarchy BY q peculiar
coincidence, this Is MARGINS plan.
Peire and Jordana returned TO
Spain In March, but another old pal
of Juan March reached Washington
at about that time He Is Luis
Garcia Guiparro, the new COM
mercial attache Of the Spanish fas-
cist embassy During the last
war. his defense Of the German sub
marines, which were sinking the
Spanish ships carrying food to the
Allyies, got hi mexpened from the
the diplomatic service.
Juan March also has a perman-
emit financial agent IN Wall street.
one Jose Mayorga Mayorga
made the headlines eight days al
ter Pearl Harbor was bombed when
Federal agents seized the Isla de
Tenarife. one of Juan MARGINS
freighters, Just as it was about to
sneak out Of New York Harbor with
an unlicensed cargo Of lubricating
oil, airplane silk and enough radio
parts to build so military short-wave
transmitters The cargo was
confiscated.
The Juan March who is working
SO hard to bring the Bourbons back
to the empty throne Of Spain was
not born an aristocrat 4. His love
for the monarchial principle was
born In 1891 when the people OF
Spain voted to end the Bourbon
monarchy The first act OF the
new Spanish republic was to throw
Juan Marsh Into the clink for
wholesale thievery, corruption and
bribery.
Under the monarchy, Juan March
had done all right. A bootblack at
IL, he beacn1e smuggler while still
in his teens. By the time World
War I broke out, March was king
of the smugglers in the Mediter-
ranean He sold Oil to the Ger
man submarine fleet and peddled a
little oil to the British, too &.
He also sold secrets about the move
ments of undersea fleets to both
sides.
The Last Pirate Of the Mediter-
ruranean. as a great Spanish writer
dubbed him, now began to really
expand He became a large scale
shipping magnate, financier, banker,
chain newspaper publisher. textile
mill and mine operator, and great
landowner With King Alfonso's
backing March became the econ
omic overload of Spain. MARGINS
power to flout all laws came to
halt when the Republicans jagged
him. But they neglected to jail
every key man in the March en-
pire Had they taken this dras-
tic step World War II might have
been averted.
Jaun March's money was able to
stuff enough ballot boxes in VAL
encia to guarantee the election"
of the jailbird to the Cortes SPANS
Congress Cortes members en-
joyed immunity from arrest. Would
have been a nice trick, If 1t had
II. 6. Planes
E~.va Gssnoe