Red Spanish Portrait of Franco

By a C.H. Reporter
General Franco has defied the United States, Britain and their Allies. The common contention is that he has been compelled to do so in face of the apparent inevitability of Hitler's New Order on the Continent. But here is' another explanation, a psychological one, though it is rapnos put ,f.orward by an enemy of
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put ,f.orward by an enemy of
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Describing the General, whom he knew personally and under whose orders he served as a soldier in Spanish Morocco, the Red intellectual, Arturo Bares, writes as follows in his latest book, Struggle for the Spanish Soul,* "Personally, I believe that he has been an honest man all his life, honest in the sense of financial correctness and incorruptibility (and) he is a man absolutely without physical fear. There are two forms of courage: the courage of the man who is afraid. but who controls his fear and deliberately commits acts of bravery; and the courage of the man who has never experienced feelings of fear, in whom bravery is a natural quality and fear an unknown and alien quantity. I believe that Franco . . . belongs to the second category." Thus he does not belong to that class of Spanish statesman described by Bares elsewhere in his hook who have succumbed to a feeling of inferiority complex vi.v-b-rit, the diplomatic representatives of other European powers.
BAREA DOES NOT FLATTER This being so, we expect Franca to be guided solely by the interests of his country such as he conceives them to be, or by his own personal ambitions, and to be riffle swayed by influences coming from beyond the frontier.
But Berea does not as to flatter. Describing the General as " supremely selfconfident," he related how after his successful Moroccan campaign in the 'twenties, Franco, now a General at the unprecedented age of 32, was made Director of the Military Academy at Saragossa. " Yet Franco could not be a decorative figure," writes Barea. " he was an active soldier who needed war in order to live.
" For many years of his youth and manhood (spent in the violent company of unprincipled Legionaries in Africa) Franco lived and developed in the midst of this savage corps, forming and being formed by it. He grew accustomed to this life of barbarous adventure, he grew accustomed to the sight of destruction, and he compietely lost the quality of human imagination — if indeed he ever possessed it."
PEN-PICTURE In conclusion, here is Barea's pen-picture of the man on whose next moves the tide of events in Europe, and above all in his own country, will depend. " In physical appearance he is not so much a Spanish as a Mediterranean Jewish type. He is fattish and rather short, even for Spain, where tall men are an exception ; his skin is very white, his hair black, formerly in tight little curls, now showing grey streaks and an incipient baldness. His round face, with its regular but sharp nose, tapers away to a small chin under childish, sullen lips. His somewhat protruding eyes are blank and wide open, the eyes of a man who has no inner problems of his own and remains untouched by outward problems.
" I always thought he showed signs of that lymphatic disposition which eliminates, or at least reduces, a number of the normal reactions and sensations. However that may be, there is no doubt that physically Franco in no way corresponds to the traditional Spanish idea of a hero and Caudillo."
* Struggle for the Spanish Soul, by Arturo Hama. (Searchlight Books, 2s.)
Rest Rooms Wanted
Lady Winefride Elwcs, President of the Catholic Women's League, has written to support Mrs. Churchill's appeal for women and girls in H.M. Forces.
"As President of the Catholic Women's League," she writes, " I wish to make a special plea for help for women in the Services. The canteens and clubs organised by the Catholic Women's League have always been open to women in uniform but now that the numbers of Service women have so greatly increased, something more than this is wanted. There is a great need for rest and recreation rooms with a Catholic atmosphere, in which they may find sympathy and help in their present rather unnatural state of life.
"I appeal therefore through 3'011P columns for funds to finance this very important work. I ant sure that all mothers will feel the urgency of doing everything we can to help our Catholic girls who have given up so much to serve their country.
"All contributions, however small, will be gratefully received and should be addressed to the President. Catholic Women's League, 160, Windsor House, Victoria Street, London, S.W.1, and should be marked, Service Women."