Evening star., 1945-12-30
Spain Declares Self
Ready for Isolation
Against Defamation
BY the Associated Press.

@NASoNsS>sNS
MADRID, Dec. 29.-The Span
ish government charged today
that Communists were respon-
sible for Campaign of defama-I
ton" against Spain. and. in a
bitterly worded statement, an
nounced that the nation was
ready to isolate itself from
whomever maintains such an
impaired concept of interna-
tional relations between peoples"
1t said attempts were being made
'to throw over the reputation of
our fatherland the unpopularity of
black legend"
The 800-word statement was
issued after long cabinet meeting
presided over by Generalissimo
Francisco Franco himself, and was
considered reply to the projected
meeting of the United States, Great
Britain and France for re-examina-
ton of relations with Francois
Spain.
With applause and shouts of
Franco" the Spanish Cortes Par-
liamenD roared its hearty accept
ance of. the statement without
taking vote.
Spain Will Maintain Rights
Spain does not accept the role
frequently attributed, to it of being
a lightning rod to draw off internal
storms of other countries" the
statement said. Spain considers
that campaigns of this sort injure
the sovereign rights of independent
peoples and establish regrettable
precedents for relations among
them which may come to the point
of counteracting the Pacific inten-
tions which generally are being put
forward for the stability and peace
of the world.
Spain, finally, will maintain its
rights and is ready to isolate itself
from whoever maintains such an
impaired concept of international
relations between peoples"
The statement struck out bitterly
at Mexico, but in the main it ap-
peared to have been directed at a
recent move initiated by the French,
seeking simultaneous rupture of
relations with the Franco regime by
the United States, Britain and
France
UnrecogniZed by Two.
"At the end of our war of liberia
ton all countries of the universe
hurried to recognize the new Spanish
state and its regime, with the sole
exception of two Russia, which
since the 1918 revolution never had
relations with Spain, and Mexico, of
which the Spanish government re-
quired as prerequisite the return
of treasure despoiled by the Reds,
which was brought to that country
and taken in custody by the Mexican
government"
Blaming Communists" for "the
campaign of defamation" against
Spain, the statement continued:
Spain once more rejects with all
her energy the insidious campaign
to discredit her which her enemies
maintain with impunity with Spain's /
own treasure, the 1900 millions of
pesetas, gold and jewels, of which
the Reds despoiled Spain, and rejects
those who help with their propa-
ganda the political passings of the
Communists and extremists of other
countries"
Claims Sympathy With U. S.
Defending Spain's role in the war,
the statement said its sympathies
with the United States were shown
by a rupture of relations with Japan
Spain broke relations with Japan
in April, 1945, three and one-half
years after Pearl Harbor, charging
mistreatment of Spanish nationals
in the Philippines.
Evidently referring to testimony
at the Nuremberg war trials, the
note said sit is being discovered by
official statements of chancellories |
and published documents that i
there existed projects on both bellig-
erent sides to violate the neutrality
of Spain Spain in its turn
Serenely faced these situations and
succeeded in upsetting these mach
nations. :"