But General Franco is not the only one who is
anxious to " save Spain from Marxism, Freemasonry and all international Red influences " at the cost of deluging it in. blood. Political .conditions _in Europe make it possible to represent the struggle in Spain as an issue between democracy • and Fascism ; the sympathies, perhaps indeed the active 'help, of Germany and Italy are with the rebels, of France and Russia with the Government. Each bloc accuses the other of illegitimate intervention in the affairs of a foreign country. Our own Government is endeavouring to Observe a scrupulomi neutrality, and the charge that it has been improperly refusing Spanish Government ships access to oil-supplies appears to lack substance. Behind the emotional sympathies of the Great Powers are very practical military considerations ; for in the event of a Mediterranean conflict, the sympathies of the Spanish Government might be of decisive importance to the combatants.
And, in its EurOpean aspect, one of the dangerous possibilities of the civil war is that it may provoke an international incident, at Tangier or elsewhere, which may add to the already numerous difficulties of the political situation. General Franco's rebellion has paradoxically again made Spain a European Power.
