SPAIN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 213, 9 August 1937, Page 6

SPAIN.

(To the Editor.) Sir,—l have often wondered who the self-styled New Zealand Welfare League people are, but after reading their latest effusion in Saturday’s “Standard” f am afraid they have let the “cat out of the bag” ; and one would not need the perspicuity of a Socrates or Dickens to recognise where they stand. Surely, sir, their claim to “IS.Z. Welfare League” is a bit far fetched, and to my mind is a decided misnomer. They must know that taking up a strong partisan attitude on behalt or Franco and company, and lending support to intervention by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany can only help to create in a minor degree a similar condition of mistrust and class hatred which should not obtain in our fair land of New Zealand. How any true believer in British justice and democratic laws can give support to those dual arch-enemies of the peace of Europe and the world, namely, Mussolini and Hitler, is very difficult to understand. Of course, the true facts are well-known regarding the awful cbndb tion in Spain, namely, that Mussolini and Hitler are at the bottom of the whole business. To gain temporal power in that unhappy land they will stop at nothing. Their one desire is another state of serfdom and slavery, as in their own land, where the people are living in abject fear of their lives. If one has any doubts about the matter just think what has happened recently in Abyssinia to defenceless Ethiopians, and in Germany to God’s ancient people, the Jews. In conclusion, sir. I can only suggest to the league that if they have nothing better to offer in the' way of New Zealand’s welfare they had better go permanently into recess. Finally, I am well aware there are some other factors that have some bearing on the matter in dispute, but to say that the trouble is Communist versus anti-Communist is sheer nonsense.—l am, etc.,

FAIR DEAL. (To the Editor.) Sir, —If propaganda is the medium through which a dead and decadent cause can hope to struggle for existence, I say there will be no shortage of extraordinary stories dished out in the hope of catching those who are apt to let others do their thinking.for them, and that the institutions that are dependent on subtle propaganda are as decadent as the cause they espouse. A half-truth distorted to gain an answer false to the existing situation is a lie. That is why the Fascist rel>els of Spain and their supporters arc not going to succeed. The New Zealand Welfare League, after vainly attempting to hold the fort for what is now the Nationalist Party, now realising itself a nonentity in the local political arena, ventures into the realm of foreign affairs by sniping at the local Spanish Relief Committee. It is attempting to convey to your readers that there is the “other side” in Spain. This is a new role for the League,, for in its propaganda in your journal in past years there was only one “side”—its own side. But in Spain its side happened to get “off side”; hence the two sides of the New Zealand Welfare League on Spain Accusing the Relief Committee of contradictions, it is a blind propaganda organisation if it cannot see its own contradictions. I know who precipitated the events of 1934 Gil Robles, who would not take part in the Cabinet but worked behind the scenes, destroyed the existing Cabinet by getting several members to walk out suddenly, and this was done with the full knowledge that it would j lead to civil war. The fall of this Samper Government immediately brought back a new Lerroux Government, and the Fascist cliques, headed by the C.E.A.D., deliberately aimed at t

provoking civil war by putting their own men in it. Faced with the threat of a Fascist dictatorship, the Spanish workers waged a desperate battle. They endeavoured in 1934 to establish a workers’ and peasants’ republic. When' Gil Robles was accused of causing this uprising, he replied: “True, I knew that if the representatives of my party joined the Government it would lead to civil war; but let us not be naive. To wait two or three months would have been suicide. Spain would have become one vast Asturias and we should have had Soviets iu Spain.” The League was discreetly silent during the conquest of Abyssinia by Mussolini. The Abyssinians were left powerless to stem the onslaught. Why? Because the sanctions imposed by the Powers had the effect of leaving these people defenceless, for they had not prepared armaments as they wished to be at peace with the world. But Mussolini did not care two straws for sanctions; he had his State prepared for aggression, and so in this case sanctions assisted the aggressor. The Government of Spain is grievously handicapped for want of the essential means of defence, and had these been forthcoming could have* ended the rebellion in its early stages. The League admits that the rebels have been supplied by the Fascist States, Germany and Italy, and deplores that the Spanish Government has been supplied for defence by Russia and France. It is to the credit of these Governments for having done so, for it has been recognised in the past that a democratic Government was entitled to bo supplied with the means to combat an armed rebellion. Finally the League charges the Spanish Government with having units from Russia and France fighting for it. The position is that any of these nationalities in Spain are there definly as volunteers on their own personal choice. There are men of all nationalities, including a few New Zealanders. who are fighting the fight for democracy in that wonderful force, the International Brigade. Not so with the rebel side. The evidence of prisoners is overwhelming; whole army units have been ordered by their superior officers in Italy and Germany to Spain, tome of whom have deserted to join the Spanish Government forces. There is much more that could be said, but I have curtailed these remarks to avoid further encroachment on your space.—l am, etc., ■. CITIZEN.