FRANCO WITH WARTS

By J. P. DONNELLY
Franco by Brian Crozier (Eyre and Spot t iawoode 70s.).
FOR this hook Mr. Crozier
was given access to documents previously untapped. and received every facility from the Spanish Government. He has produced a study of Franco and Franco Spain that is packed with information and comment. Mr. Crozier, an Australian by birth, completely lacks any hump of reverence: one of his first aims is to destroy the two mythical Franco images, the superman of the toadies and sycophants and the jack-hooted monster so frequently cartooned in the British Press.
Inevitably. the author has to go hack to 1812 in order lo explain 1936. He relates Franco's unhappy childhood to the hackground of the closing years of that unhappy century for Spain, and goes on to describe the young cadet and dedicated professional soldier who "became a political general by accident."
The course of the Second Republic and the Civil War is grippingly described. though Mr. Crozier. who is not a Catholic, has perhaps under emphasised the ferocious attempt to destroy
thirties. Catholic faith in Spain in the thirties. It is inadequate and simetiste to write the Church oil as identified with the landowning classes and therefore doomed to destruction. As regards general atrocities, he is inclined to share the blame between both sides. He criticises Franco for the cruel reprisals that followed the war: but he insists that 'Franco Spain must be judged by the standards of Spain's own history"---a significant qualification.
Mr. Crozier's account of the involved international and domestic juggling of Franco's 30 years in power is fascinating. He gives full credit to his courage, political guile, "masterly inertia," ruthlessness and patriotism. He also notes, though disapprovingly, Franco's conviction that he is a man of destiny, placed where he is by the hand of Providence.
The author evaluates General Franco, on his present achievements. as the outstanding statesman of the last 150 years of Spanish history. He sees Franco in relation to the complexities of Spain and of his own character. The regime. though traditional. conservative and authoritarian. is not Fascist. Franco himself is "a man of principles, not of ideology.Mr. Crozier has subjected those principles to close and impartial scrutiny.