SIR, —I am afraid that economic pressure would not destroy
Franco's regime and that Mr. Gilmour is mistaken in ascribing so many of Spain's troubles to Franco; Spain was poor and priest- and police- ridden before Franco, and probably will be after him. His police State is not like Hitler's, or even Mussolini's; to one who has lived in Spain it seems more like Cromwell's (there are many close parallels and Don Juan's restoration could provide another). No doubt Franco is a subtle intriguer with no con- structive policy, a military mind, temperamentally conservative, unimaginative and unbending; as Mr. Gilmour rightly says of his faith in Catholicism, 'it is impossible to doubt his sincerity today.' How could he, then, write of him a few lines above: 'Utterly without principle, he could become a Marxist to- morrow if his interests deman'ded it "t This, unfortunately in some ways, is just what he could not do.—Yours faithfully,
ANTHONY LUTTRELL
Via di San Salvatore in Campo, 46, Rome
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