Since unprejudiced information about the state of Spain is not
always easy to come by it is worth while to draw attention to a statement just issued by Mr. Howard Kershner, an American Friend, who is Director of Relief of Child Refugees in Spain. The work of the organisation began in Republican Spain and has continued uninterrupted since the war ended. Mr. Kershner, who remarks incident- ally that " as far as one may judge from careful and extensive observation, most of the Italians have gone," says that Auxilio Social, the Spanish official relief organisation, in co-operation with which the relief committee is working, appears to work with impartiality, and there is no ground for believing that it discriminates against children on account of their parents' political views. Surveying the situation as a whole, Mr. Kershner, who says he has told many Spanish officials that he considers a totalitarian government the greatest misfortune that could come to any people, feels bound to record that the new Government has restored discipline and is proceeding in an orderly manner to the execution of what it believes to be justice. Such a verdict must, of course, be read in the light of the savage sentence of 3o years' imprisonment just imposed on the moderate Republican leader, Don Julian Besteiro,—but acts of political vengeance do not make the establishment of a reasonably efficient regime for ordinary citizens incredible.
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