The Wilmington morning star., 1946-12-27
Spanish Policy
Bv WILLIAM III. CHAMBERLAIN

By WILLIAM H. CHAMBERLAIN
Whenever the Spanish question comes up
in the discussions of the u. NJ. one has a
feeling of hearing an old, familiar and some
what s%cratchy photograph record being re-
played. The totalitarian Soviet Union and its
East European satellite regimes work tnem-
selves into a state of high moral Indignation
over the absence in Spain of those political
and civil liberties which are rather conspicu-
ously non-extent in their own countries.
Certain individuals in this country whose in
dignation over tyrannical methods Of govern
ment abroad is rather sharply and signiti-
cantly limited to relationships with an anti
Communist tinge back the attack of the Soviet
Union and its satellites. The United States
and Great Britain, anxious to avoid political
complications in Spain, but also anxious to
propitiate ~left-wing critics at home, issue
somewhat defensive and apologize state
ments.
The reasons why the United States and
Great Britain are not willing to go beyond
verbal reputation of the Franco Government,
supplemented by the exclusion OF Spain from
the U. N. and its agencies, are fairly obvious.
Spain, as its history has proved again and
again, is one Of the most politically combusti-
BILE countries in the world. More than a centu-
ry ago, after the end of the Napoleonic Wars,
the issue of intervention in Spain was a
subject of bitter dispute among the European
poWers.
No one can foresee what form a new civil
war in Spain would take. No one can guar
anty that it might not lead to the emergence,
in that tormented country, of a replica OF
the familiar Soviet satellite type of govern
ment which is so common in Eastern Eu-
rope, with a nominal coalition government
actually dominated by Communists in key
posts.
Such a development would endanger British
communications in the Mediterranean and
might well turn Spain into a natural base for
and anti-American propaganda in
Latin America. In the present state Of world
relations no sensible American or British
statesman would feel happy over the appear
ance Of Russia on the Atlantic. Senator Con-
nally was speaking in tones Of mild under
statement when he expressed the opinion be-
fore the United Nations that an outbreak of
civil war in Spain would not contribute either
to the development Of a democratic regime
in Spain or to the cause of internations, peace
and security"
Senator Connally was also on solid ground
when he rejected the suggestion that the pres
ent government of Spain, however objection
able its methods OF internal administra alton
may be, is a threat to international peace.
Weak and isolated and deficient in modern
weapons, Francois regime certainly does not
seem to be capable Of waging aggressive war.
There is another argument which might
well have been used and which would lend
debating strength to the American position.
Except to violent partisans Of one type OF
dictatorship against another there would seem
to be no reason for playing ~favorites among
governments which trample on political and
civil liberties.
There is an abundance Of evidence to prove
that Tito's tyranny in Yugoslavia is just as
sanguinary as Frances in Spain, and is rather
more scientifically organized along totalitari-
an lines. There is more popular armed re-
sistance to the made-in Moscow Polish Gov
ernment than there is to Franco. The present
Rumanian government is more open than
Frances to the charge of being purely a
creature of foreign interventionist pressure.
The atmosphere would be appreciably
cleared ii a responsible American representa-
tive, inside or outside the U. N. should make
a commonsense statement of American policy
along the following lines:
All governments which maintain themselves
in power by cruelty and oppression and dis
regard Of the peoples will are alien to the
American conception Of political democracy
and Individual liberty. Should any totali!arian
state resort to aggression beyond its own
borders We are prepared to take suitable
action in line with the Charter of the United
Nations. We are not, however. prepared to
60 on an armed crusade against totalitarian
states within their own frontiers. And we are
definitely unwilling to take diplomatic or eco
nomic action against one type Of totalitarian
state which does not extend to all total:tarian
states.
Such a declaration would possess an ele-
ment of finality and would probably induce
the powers in the U. N. which want 20 ma
neuver the United States and Great Britain
into an anti-totalitarian crusade, with Franco
as its sole objective, to give up their efforts
Very probably, Spanish psychology being what
it is, the chances of a replacement of Franco
would be better without the application of out
side pressure. These chances would surely be
better if Europe were free from Communist
totalitarianism. For one extreme in politics
feeds and strengthens its opposite extreme
Wall Street Journal. !
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