Franco's Spain
Sia,—Your correspondent, Miss Dorothy Shepherd, has, in common with certain " professional " observers—so-called—fallen into the error of making either unjustified or completely inaccurate criticisms of life in Spain today. 1 have no wish to take up your valuable space with a complete critical analysis of her letter, but 'I would like to take this opportunity of commenting on three aspects of it, about which I have personal experience.
In the first place. Miss Shepherd states that ham at fl a kilo is beyond the means of the ordinary Spanish family. It takes little arithmetic to work that price out at 9s. Id. a lb. Here in England today, ham costs 10s. a lb., and I can assure Miss Shepherd that that price is far beyond the means of an ordinary British family.
Secondly, eggs. Eggs, your correspondent complains, cost 5c1.-51d. apiece in Spain, which is, at the very most, 14d. dearer than our 4d. egg. But, and here is my point. the 5d. egg in Spain is fresh—straight from the hen, in fact—whereas our 4d. or 41d. egg has, more likely than not, travelled from behind the Iron Curtain and been in cold storage for no one knows how long. Incidentally, in Madrid this autumn 4- and 5-day eggs were on sale for, if I remember rightly, about 20 pesetas a dozen.
Thirdly. I am surprised at Miss Shepherd's charge of what she nebu- 1ously calls "a railway racket" and elaborates as "a black market in long-distance train tickets." Now, 1 have travelled considerably about
Spain very recently and I, personally, have never come across any suggestion of the conditions of which your reader complains, nor has anyone to whom I have spoken about it. For example, my wife travelled alone from Madrid to Bilbao. Owing to a misunderstanding she missed me at the Norte station, and when I finally met het the train was due to leave and she had no ticket. The circumstances were explained to the jefe del teen and my wife travelled through at the normal fare.
As regards any other irregularity, frankly I am very dubious if any exists. 1 purchased my return ticket at the offices of the Spanish National Railway in the Alcala: I was booked right through to London, and all I paid over the normal fare was the few pesetas fee for a seat reservation. Black market? Where?
1 have no idea why these niggling points are brought up by English visitors to Spain without, It would seem, more careful investigation of facts and comparisons. It is a habit which can only do more harm than good in our relations with Spain.—Yours faithfully,
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