Page 6, 22nd October 1937

22nd October 1937

Page 6

Page 6, 22nd October 1937 — JOURNALISTS IN FRANCO'S SPAIN Captain McCullagh's Reply
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Organisations: red cross
Locations: Madrid, Toledo, Guadalajara, Paris

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JOURNALISTS IN FRANCO'S SPAIN Captain McCullagh's Reply

Srre—I envy your correspondent his capacity for making friends and his ability to go everywhere he wants to go in Nationalist Spain.
" I have always," he says, " been able to travel freely with my ' salvoconducto ' throughout all the liberated territory. I have visited all the fronts, driving my car whither my fancy bid me, without being obliged to accompany an organised tour, or an official of the Press."
We were all in the same happy position before the investment of Madrid. This, I admit in my book. But after the investment of Madrid, all the English-speaking correspondents save yours were shackled by regulations. Such of them as have written books say so very emphatically, though by saying so they expose themselves to the danger of being refused admission to Spain, and of being dismissed by their papers (if those papers have, like the Daily Mail, backed Franco heavily). In private conversation they speak of Busty and his Press regulations in language which the Daily Express describes as " blasphemous," and which cannot, therefore, be reproduced in the New Catholic Herald; but, in any case, it would be dishonourable and a violation of journalistic etiquette for me to quote private conversations with my colleagues.
shall therefore confine myself to what those correspondents say in their published books. One of them is Mr. Cardozo, of the Daily Mail, a Catholic (I believe), a strong supporter of Franco, and a correspondent who has been with the Nationalists from the very beginning. He was so enthusiastic for the Requetes that they made him an honorary member of their organisation, and presented him with a red beret together with an official permit to wear it. And he did wear it. The first time I saw him was in Avila, where he wore not only the red cap of Navarre, but the great cloak whereon a large red cross was embroidered, and a number of religious medals. Yet he says in his book:
" The censorship and restrictions of all kinds on the movements of correspondents were to be increased in severity as the weeks went on until it was impossible, in theory at least, for a war correspondent to move a yard without a special visa, a special safe-conduct, and usually a Press officer to see that he did not stray on the Way . . . Captain Bolin handed out to us all neat brown Press passes which carefully specified that the holder was not to go to the front without due authorisation from the competent staff, nor without a guardian angel in the shape of a Press officer by his side."
I quote from page 155 of The March of a Nation, by Harold G. Cardozo, Eyrc and Spottiswoode, 1937. Even stronger language will be found on pages 156, 221, 254, etc., etc.
Mr. Cecil Geharty another correspondent of the Daily Mail, uses similar language in his book, The Road to Madrid. He tells us, for example, of the difficulties he had in avoiding the long, melancholy gang of tame correspondents who were conducted, like a procession of school children, into Toledo, long after it had been taken, by one of Busty's subordinates, and how he himself was finally rounded up. I might add that, after having had his wings clipped, he left Spain like Sir Percival Phillips, Pembroke Stephens, Mr. Knickerbocker (whom Busty had jailed for some breach of his idiotic regulations), Mr. Cardozo, Mr. Bushirc, and many others.
Owing to the pressure on your space, I cannot give all my evidence. I did give it all in the first letter I wrote on this subject, but as it ran to about 5,0(X) words, it could not, of course, be reproduced in your paper. I proved, for example, that on the occasion of the push at the Jarama and the subsequent push at Guadalajara, those two Madrilenian fronts were impenetrable to all the English-speaking correspondents whom I knew.
All the evidence is not that of war correspondents. The Tablet, which is not a sensational or an anti-Franco newspaper, has commented very strongly on the severity of the Bustamente censorship. On the same subject Lord Ruthven has written as follows in the Daily Telegraph of October 7: " To my mind one of the biggest mistakes Franco has ma-de is to ignore the value of propaganda*. Our papers are full of Red stories. How seldom one sees anything from Franco's side. I believe he has done his cause an immense amount Of harm by his curt treatment of foreign journalists."
Now, Lord Ruthven has an intimate knowledge of what is going on in Nationalist Spain, is an English Conservative, is strongly in favour of Franco, and, having been a Major-General and a Colonial Governor, is the very last person in the world who would, in war-time, take the side of the Press unless the Press were overwhelmingly in the right.
All the above is not a criticism of your correspondent: on the contrary, it is a feather in his cap. He has penetrated into places hermetically sealed to all other correspondents. He has established good relations with functionaries who set the teeth of his colleagues on edge. I take off my hat to him, and look forward with the greatest pleasure to meeting him when I return to Spain, for now that Busty has fallen, I can return. I hope that he will write a book on this war, for he has certainly seen more of it, so far, than any other journalist.
FRANCIS MCCULLAGH.
41, Rue Cambon, Paris.




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