THE CONFLICT IN SPAIN
[To the Editor of Tux SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Your correspondent, Lt..-Cirt P. R. 13utler, while expres. - sing disbelief, in " Colonel. Blimp," reveals in his long letter • upon the conflict in Spain some unmistakable evidences Of
the Blimp mentality.. . .
letter is full of rhetorical questions, beggings of the question, naive credulity and windy invective. May I note only one or two points in it that seem to .demand comment ?, (1) The gallant colonel .is impatient with thebogeys of " ecclesiastical oppression " and " inquisition traditions," and, wishes they could be given a rest. (He has a much more start- ling set of bogeys of his own.) I have before me a letter published in an Ehglish religious weekly by a resident in Spain of undoubted veracity and experience. It speaks of the Fascist terror in the towns under rebel control, the cries . in the streets " Long live the -Inquisition ! ", of houses of priests filled with bombs, of the butchery of women and children. That the - Church in Spain has, as an institution, been steadily and for generations on the side of cruelty and oppression is a fact which it is either sheer ignorance or blatant, hypocrisy to deny. Has your correspondent never seen the cartoons bf Goya ? They are an illuminating comment on a situation which it seems to be beyond the power of enlighten- ment to' exorcise. And that the present Fascist rebel party are not merely opposing Red revolution but democracy in any,"even thebaildest, form was candidly avowed two days ago
by one bf theii Spokesmen. • - ,
(2) COloriel Biitler delightfully begs the "Whole question at issue when he plea& that a'reVolt is justified:where the rebels
" are the real defenders and champions of the ideals the Government should hold." - .
(3) With the memory of the grotesquely exaggerated atrocity-stories of the Great War—all so well authenticated— one can only hope that many of the horrors reported on both sides (" Colonel Blimp " only reads the one set, no doubt, except by accident) have no basis in fact. In any case, they cancel out, for it should be clear by this time that in this competition in ferocity the palm can be awarded to neither side. And so we are left with the facts that cannot be denied— that a " patriotic " rebel plot, supported by machines and machinations from foreign Powers, invades Spain with Moorish troops ; and that a " Christian " party condones and even glories in wholesale butchery of prisoners and hostages ; and that a party claiming to stand for law and order deliberately started this murderous internecine war against at least half (the Observer a week ago—no " red " organ—said more than half) the population.
How gladly one would believe that Colonel Blimp is " a fiction over here," and alas, how impossible it is to do so
Mr. C. R. V. ,Coutts, in his letter on the same subject, ques- tions whether the victorious party in Spain, whichever it may prove to be, will become a satellite of Powers under the same type of Government. " International affinities," he says, " are determined more by what are believed to be common material interests." But it is surely clear that whichever side wins the government that emerges will have against it a widespread public hostility, and will be chiefly concerned to perpetuate its power by, the help of powerful friends abroad.. A ruined Spain will, in any case, be disastrously weak. But while,,if the Government wins, this weakness will simply make for docility and compliance with the more or less democratic States of the League, if the rebels are victorious they will be under the strongest temptation to buy Fascist support by concessions (in Morocco or elsewhere) which would be fatal to British interests. Cannot even our Colonel Blimps for once drop, their red spectacles and see such very plain fact ?- Yours faithfully,
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