1942: Spain

Economic Aspects.

Caught between a German army on the northern frontier and an Anglo-American blockade of the seas, Spain was able through 1942 to make only very slow progress out of the morass of political dissensions and economic troubles in which she has been floundering since the close of the civil war in 1939. Through the blockade, by careful diplomatic maneuvering, she was able to secure from the United States, Latin America and England barely enough food supplies to supplement domestic production and ward off actual starvation, though reportedly four-fifths of her population remained unable to secure sufficient food to satisfy hunger. Bread and potatoes were especially scarce. Despite heavy fines and severe penalties, unscrupulous speculators maintained one of the most notorious black markets in Europe, and on its activities the government blamed much of the widespread distress. Neutral observers, however, believe that present scarcity also has its roots in conditions produced by the civil war. Cattle killed in great numbers at that time have not been replaced, tillable fields are still unusable because of danger from exploding bombs and hand-grenades, and seed supplies have been insufficient.

For lack of proper tools, railways which were widely damaged in the war period could not be repaired or refurnished with rolling stock. Transportation, therefore, was largely dependent on trucks, and these in turn could not move without gasoline, of which only a small quantity trickled through a blockade maintained by Powers that were themselves short of this commodity and moreover were disposed to be extremely cautious lest any of the precious article should pass through Spain to their enemies. Uneven distribution of the available small supplies of the necessities of life added to Spain's miseries.

Work on reconstruction projects, especially for irrigation purposes, went slowly forward through the year with the continued use of battalions of forced labor. Four hundred thousand persons were estimated to be employed in this fashion, and over the heads of 40,000 of these death sentences were suspended. The sullen anger and the intense resentment of relatives and sympathizers of these prisoners produced from time to time outbursts of violence against government officials that filled the country with an atmosphere of unrest.

The social effects of these conditions were considered by visiting foreigners to be extremely bad. The American physician, Dr. Alexis Carrel, after an extensive survey, stated that one entire generation of Spaniards must be considered as ruined by malnutrition, pellagra and like diseases. To cope with these conditions the government made an effort to centralize social work and provide adequate maternity centers and child clinics. Meanwhile, extraordinary government appropriations to provide funds for enlarged armaments, including a building program of new ships, and the support of a considerable army felt to be necessary in the face of a warring world and a resentful home population, loaded the country with further debt and delayed the return to normal conditions. Back debts added their quota as Spanish treasury bonds continued to be transferred to Rome to pay for war materials furnished by Italy during the civil war.

Political Affairs.

In the political sphere control remained in the hands of General Franco and the National Council. Announcement was made, however, on July 18, of the purpose to create a cortes constructed on the basis of corporative representation. This totalitarian-type parliament was to be without party lines and was to include all members of the directing body of the Falange state party, mayors of provincial capitals, captains-general of the army, presidents of academies, and chiefs of other state organizations. All the activities of this body were to be subject to veto by El Caudillo.

The chief feature of political life, however, was the increasing tension between the army and the Falange, with General Franco barely managing to keep a balance between the two. The army, growing increasingly pro-Ally in feeling, deeply resented the strongly pro-Axis policy of the Falange and its leader Serrano Suñer. Feeling between the two groups reached such heights in May and June that frequent street fighting took place. Associated with this rivalry was an insistent discussion, mounting especially from July onwards, on the restoration of the monarchy. This movement aimed at placing on the throne Don Juan, the late King Alfonso's third son, now 28 years of age and living with his Italian wife, Maria Mercedes, and their four children, in Switzerland. Carlists and Alfonsists were both behind this movement which also had the backing of the Church and many of the aristocracy and of the bourgeoisie, and was reported to be especially strong in the northern provinces.

In August political dissensions were responsible for a bomb outrage in Bilbao, where an explosion occurred as a congregation was emerging from the Basilica, killing and injuring upwards of 200 persons. The immediate object appeared to be the discouragement of a monarchist plot. Disputes between the army and the party over the handling of this affair helped precipitate the most dramatic political event of the year. This came in the form of a sweeping cabinet shake-up on Sept. 3. Suddenly on this day General Franco dismissed a number of the most prominent members of his cabinet, including his brother-in-law, Serrano Suñer, who had held the two posts of Minister of Foreign Affairs and President of the Falange, and was generally regarded as the leader of the pro-Axis forces in Spain. General Varela, a strong representative of army views, was ousted along with Suñer. Franco himself assumed the office of President of the Falange, while Gen. Francisco Gomez de Jordana, a staunch supporter of El Caudillo, became Foreign Minister. At the same time Manuel Mora Figueroa became Secretary of the Falange, ousting a prominent Suñer sympathizer, while a pro-Ally sympathizer, Brig. Gen. Carlos Asensio Cabanilles, became Minister of War. The whole maneuver was generally regarded as one which shifted the balance in the cabinet from the Falange to the army and strengthened General Franco's personal power. He and the army were both generally believed to be opposed to intervention in the war on any terms, and the successful dismissal of Hitler's top man, Suñer, was commonly felt to have strengthened Spain's policy of neutrality. General Franco was supported in this crisis by the Church, which for some time had been growing steadily more outspoken in its opposition to Nazi penetration. Suñer had recently tried to persuade the Vatican to muzzle the Spanish bishops and thereby had increased their opposition.

The first important pronouncement by the new cabinet was to the effect that the government would punish 'inexorably' any violence against the state within Spain, reaffirmed the policy of anti-Communism and declared for close friendship with Portugal and for 'historic solidarity' with Latin America.

The policy of anti-Communism had been a strong note in Spanish foreign policy throughout the year. In April Suñer had boasted that El Caudillo had promised in a speech to his followers in Seville that if the German bulwark could not alone withstand the tremendous peril of Russia, Spain would aid not only with 15,000 troops then fighting on the Russian front, but with 1,000,000 men. In July, General Franco had declared that the only great problem facing Europe was Communism.

By September, though still fearful of the Russian menace and warmly wooed by Germany with the promise of being made a strong empire well integrated with 'the New Order' in the future, General Franco had apparently come to have a lively realization of the precarious position in which Spain stood. In the European world she was only one of five weak neutral nations, while the control of the seas, and consequently of much of her food supplies, rested in the hands of the Allied Powers who obviously enjoyed the sympathy of the majority of the people of Spain. Though professing no sympathy for the democracies, General Franco became more cautious of offending England and the United States. After the arrival in June of Carleton Hayes as new United States Minister the relations of Spain and the United States had tended to improve. Ways had been found to ship out an increasing amount of Spanish goods needed by American war industries, such as cork, tungsten, zinc, pyrites, wolfram, and mercury, in return for greater amounts of gasoline, fertilizer and other American goods needed in Spain. Sir Samuel Hoare, as British Ambassador, meanwhile bent his diplomatic talents also towards keeping Spain neutral and in this program Britain came into the Spanish market for iron ore and other minerals in exchange for British coal.

Questions of Neutrality.

Late in August President Roosevelt in a press conference announced that the United States, with the cooperation of the Latin American countries, had devised a plan for rehabilitating Spanish cultural life and assisting her economically by improving the railway system and bettering tourist accommodations in anticipation of postwar needs. He had thought of the scheme, he said, when despatching Hayes as minister, and had instructed him to investigate Spanish cultural assets. The Minister had presently reported that only a small amount of damage had been done to Spanish artistic and literary treasures, but that they required rehabilitation. This and other measures could be financed, Mr. Roosevelt remarked, by contributions from individuals, groups and foundations, under the sponsorship of individual governments, without Federal appropriation. Pressed on the point, the American president admitted that the plan was predicated on Spain's remaining neutral. This American announcement was followed within a week by the cabinet shake-up that materially reduced Axis strength in Spain and had the effect of a major diplomatic move.

Another consideration moving General Franco to reduce German influence in the peninsula was a reluctance to isolate Spain from the Latin world in the Americas. This seemed a likelihood as the swing away from the Axis in the Spanish-American world became more pronounced. Within a week of the dismissal of Suñer, Spain and Argentina signed a cultural agreement providing for interchange of teachers, lecturers, artists, students, books and magazines.

On Nov. 8, two months after the cabinet crisis, United States troops landed in North Africa, and on the same day letters of reassurance from President Roosevelt were placed in the hands of the leaders of both the Spanish and Portuguese governments. To General Franco, President Roosevelt wrote: 'I hope that you will accept my full assurance that these moves ... are in no shape, manner or form directed against the government or people of Spain or Spanish territory, metropolitan or overseas ... I believe that the Spanish government and Spanish people wish to maintain neutrality and to remain outside the war. Spain has nothing to fear from the United States.' Expressing appreciation of the message, General Franco replied that his policy was one of neutrality. A more formal reply, given on Nov. 13, reiterated that 'Spain knows the value of peace and sincerely desires peace for itself and for all other people.' Both Spain and Portugal as the result of this correspondence assumed new definite positions of strict neutrality.

It was ostensibly to protect this status, in the face of the more complete occupation of France by German troops, of rumored Italian interest in air bases in the Balearic Islands, and of the extension of growing Allied conquest in North Africa, that Spain began on Nov. 18 a partial mobilization in all three armed services, in preparation for any emergency that might arise. Some observers felt that this Spanish mobilization of a million men might give Germany an excuse to march her army into that country and so secure a route of attack on her enemies in the Mediterranean. Up to the end of the year this had not happened. Meanwhile the policy of neutrality on the part of both Spain and Portugal was strengthened when, on Dec. 20, the creation of an Iberian bloc 'strong enough to maintain peace and influence international politics' was announced by Gen. Count Francisco Gomez de Jordana at a luncheon given at Cintra in Portugal by Dr. Salazar, the Portuguese Prime Minister.