[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Sur,—Your correspondent Professor Harvey's remarks on the conflict in Spain raise such grave issues that I beg to be allowed to make the following observations upon them : (1) His condemnation of the rebels' use of Moorish troops ignores the fact that the inhabitants of Eastern and Southern Spain are largely Moorish themselves in blood and in. culture. A secr0,*o, hainmed4n mosque with a large congregation was discovered at Valencia as recently as the year 1760. The present ghastly outrages against things Christian, are partly. to. ,be explained by an underground . survival of Morisco tradition. The MooriSh troops are, moreover, Spanish subjects and, as such, as much concerned for the government of their country as any others. The Professor's zeal for "'Aryan race is surely misplaced in dealing with Spanish affairs.
(2). 'contention that the atrocities on both sides " cancel
out a confusion of cause with effect.
(3)` HIS critical attitude when it is a question of atrocity- stories Is' laid aside when he naively quotes an ebullition of theologiCion from an unnamed " English religious
,
weekly " as evidence of ecelesiistieal oppression in $pain. The Spanish Inquisition, which, 'was abolished in 1835, is hardly more convincing than the pictures of Goya, who died in 1828, as evidence for the present state of the*. Spanish Church. Moreover, those whoie investigations of the Spanish Inquisition have gone beyond the works of perpetuators of the " Black Legend'' such as the Jacobin Llorente or the 'bitterly hoitile Lea, know that it was far leis than
. .
is often supposed. The excellence of work done by Orphanages; hospitals, schools and such likeIn connexionsivith the SPangh Church and the devoted social work of nuns is kno*ii to
many persons now in England who, like myself, are neither Rdrntuf Catff011its nor' possessor of any private axe to grind.
(4) Speculations as to the effect of a rebel victory on the Political orientation of Spain are too, Precarious to be used ,402s a guide for British policy. In any .cue it should be ,remembered that a Fascist-State is a State with a grievance. It would surely be the wiser as well as the nobler course to consider how these grievances of Italy, Germany and others could le .settled with justice rather than with war. References to- the Straits of Gibraltar suggest that we are. contemplating the latter—sub-Blimp—alternative.Yours faithfully, R. TREVOR DAVIES.. 9 Manor Road, Holywell, Oxford.
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