The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1946-03-02
Spain
By ANNE o'HARE MCCORMICK

| Spain is rapidly becoming once more focal
point of international tension. This is as it
was in the beginning for many people believe
that the Second World War started in Spain;
certainly the international civil war that runs
| through the great power struggle Of our time
had its first rehearsal in that unhappy! PENN
sula.
It remained for France to take the first
definite action to bring the Spanish issue out
side the boundaries of Spain. This is the some
what paradoxical effect of the decision of the
French government to close the frontier be-
tween the two countries. External pressures
of all kinds were brought to bear during the
war to prevent Spain from entering the con-
fict on the side Of the Axis. Since hostilities
ceased these pressures now directed toward
upsetting the Franco regime, have been more
open and more organized.
Until now, however, pressure has been large
ly confined to resolutions and propaganda. The
French take the question into the field of &C.
ton by closing the border and announcing that
they have decided to inform the Governments
of Great Britain and France that "the present
situation il Spain constitutes a danger for in
ternational security''-a phrase made familiar
in the UNO sessions by the accusations launch
against Britain by Russia in the cases Of
Greece and Iadonesia.
Agitation for stronger action than this has
stirred up France for several months. The
Communists and 1eft-wing Socialists wanted
the French delegation to bring the Spanish is
sue before the Security Council. Now, reused
by the execution of fourteen Spanish Repub-
licans headed by Cristino Garcia, fighter in
the French Resistance, they demand COM
plete break with Spain. Foreign Minister
Eidault, loath to act alone, sounded out Wash
ington and London last December on the pos
sibility of joint action Since this support was
not forthcoming, and there is no indication now
that Britain and the United States mean to fol-
low the French move, it can be assumed that
he yielded reluctantly to the present COM
promise.
France as well as the explosive situation in
SPAIN 1t is significant Of the shifting balance
that the forces of the French Left are now able
to push the Government farther than the Pop
ular Front under Leon Blum could be induced
to go during the Spanosh civil war. At that
time the Blum Government Withstood constant
pressure to intervene alone in Spain. Today,
despite the unstable character Of the coalition,
despite weakness that might be expected to
deter France from bold gestures she lacks
power to follow up, Government and popular
sentiment seem ready to take "a strong lead
in SPAIN
In Spain itself it has long been clear that
the only thing that keeps Franco in power is
fear of another civil war. Practically all re-
ports agree with the story of Cyrus Sulzberger
published in this newspaper yesterday to the
effect that the regime is discredted, that the
Falange is detested, that all opposition is
stifled, including the Monarchist, which the
Generalissimo is supposed to favor, and that
the economic picture is as dark as ever. In
a recent speech at Segovia, Franco himself
| admitted that the nation is hungry, but blamed
the food shortage on the hostility Of the ''out-
side world, which does not want our expert
n.eHt to succeed"
The trouble with the experiment. Is that
in six years it has done nothing either to heal
the wounds Of the civil war or to improve the
condition of the people. Nevertheless there is
little organized opposition. Even the guerrilla
bands, according to Mr.. Sulzberger, number
only 5000 to 5000, and these are mainly Com
munists-Whose shortage of arms, ne says,
French Communists promise to remedy. No
| body in Spain moves, because Spaniards of
every shade of opinion dreal repetition of the
horrors Of internecine strife even more than
they hate the present dictatorship. And outside
powers move only by indirection, because
other action would constitute intervention and
also no one would lightly assume responsibility
either for another blood bath in Spain or for
relighting in the ruins of Europe the flames
of the terrible Right-Left conflict of which Spain
was the theater and the victim.
| Again, as before, Spain is only an incident
in bigger drama. 1t is doubtful If outsiders
really understand this proud, violent, divided,
feudal, strangely non-European country or
think very much Of the great body of people
lying between the fanatical Right and the
fanatical Left. These are the people the die
tatorship really STILES. In every autocracy
| it is this majority that forms the submerged
nation that the world cannot reach or hear.
These submerged nations not only make
normal national life impossible. They make
normal international life impossible. This is
the big element in the successive '.misunder-
standings that trouble the relations between
Russia and the Western democracies: we can
not comprehend Russia because it speaks with
one voice, and one voice it too strong against
the dissident chorus Of democracy, which by
nature and definition is thing of many voices
How, on the other side can the world speak
to Spain, to Russia, or any other controlled
country, when communication both ways is
cut off? This is the question underlying at.
tempts to unseat the Franco regime. 1t is a
fundamental problem of International relations
in the postwar world.-New York Times