SPAIN: Small Great War

Wearing exact German copies of Spanish military uniforms, equipped with side arms, rifles, bayonets and Sam Browne belts of Spanish appearance, 6,000 close-cropped, square-headed Germans landed last week at Cadiz en route for Seville, White Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s chief base in South Spain. They will more than replace all Whites thus far killed besieging Madrid. This latest Aryan influx brought the number of foreigners fighting on one side or the other in Spain’s Civil War at latest reports up to 17,000 proWhite and 13,000 pro-Madrid.

With this major fact before them, envoys of 27 nations, meeting in London last week as the International Committee for Non-intervention (TIME, Oct. 19 et ante), scratched their heads in bewilderment, pondered a declaration by Marxian Spanish Premier Francisco Largo Caballero that “A European war is now being fought on a small scale in Spain!”

The Committee’s cautious British Chairman Lord Plymouth could think of nothing more to do last week than express “grave anxiety” over the dispatch of foreign military volunteers to Spain and suggest half-heartedly that British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden should plead once more with Radical Premier Largo Caballero and White President & Generalissimo Franco to spurn foreign war materials. This was like asking two starving cats to spurn cream. To add to the British-dominated Committee’s perplexities came further reports that “Italian adventurers” were occupying the Balearic islands, drilling Fascist militia at Mallorca in readiness for an attack by sea on Barcelona.

At this moment many Christians tended to lose what sympathy they had for Hitler & Mussolini, who loomed as apostles of the will to power, war and ruin. Painful though it was to approve Stalin, the ruthless stamper-out of religion and silent partner in the Moscow Comintern’s campaign to foment world Revolution, many found their sympathies inclining toward the Russian soldiers in Spain and the airmen of the Red Army who went up daily in Soviet bombing planes to strafe the Whites. This was partly because Russia has been more successful than either Germany or Italy in masking the fact of her now immensely increased armed intervention in Spain, partly because as the Red Army actually goes to war in Spain the organs of Communist propaganda throughout the world affirm this week: “The Soviet Union stands for Peace.”

Generalissimo Franco meanwhile reported that he beat back the Red militia offensive which began fortnight ago against his capital Burgos (TIME, Dec. 7), inflicting heavy losses. He sent 30 White planes to dump 1,200 high-explosive bombs over Madrid, killing hundreds. Said the city’s defender General José Miaja grimly, “The final battle must soon break to end the siege of Madrid one way or the other.”

In Paris after covering every phase of the civil war in Spain arrived New York Timesman William P. Carney. Over the eight solid weekday columns of his first dispatch the Times headlined: “MADRID SITUATION REVEALED; UNCENSORED STORY OF SIEGE. All Semblance of Democratic Forms of Government in Spain Disappears—25,000 Put to Death by Radicals—Priests, Nuns Slain.” Excerpts: “Hundreds of luckless Spaniards who held the most liberal political views have been slain in Madrid because they were denounced by former servants who were discharged for incompetence. . . .

“Marcel Rosenberg, first Soviet Ambassador to the Spanish Republic, handpicked the Largo Caballero Cabinet . . . Although the people of Madrid know little about Russia it has become the fashion for them to do nearly everything in what they hope is the Russian manner. Government militiamen, receiving ten pesetas per day, eagerly purchase with their earnings peaked caps decorated with the Communist star, similar to those worn by soldiers in the Soviet Army.

“The destructive power of 400-lb. and 500-lb. bombs dropped by the trimotored Insurgent planes almost defies description. Eight and ten story buildings are partly or wholly leveled. So heavy are these messengers of death that the bombing planes tip to one side and wobble a little as they are released. The city is singularly helpless and defenseless against attacks from the air because the Government’s anti-aircraft armament is practically useless. About a dozen machine guns and one-pounders, handled by woefully in expert militiamen, have not brought down a single enemy plane so far, all the claims in Government communiques notwithstanding.

“There are many Russian officers in the Loyalist Air Force. Others are commanding tank companies or artillery units and some even leading infantry columns. I saw several of these Russian officers at the front in University City. They speak no Spanish, but give their orders in French to a Spanish officer who interprets to the men.

“Apparently the Government militia still is being fed adequately, but only a few crumbs are left from their mess table for the civilian populace. Potatoes, eggs and meat are rare delicacies that most civilians have not tasted for many weeks.

“The intolerance of the Spaniards embroiled in the fratricidal strife has become so intense that an impartial foreigner cannot be friendly with two Spaniards whose political beliefs are even slightly in conflict. There is no freedom whatever allowed journalistic investigation and the strictest censorship imaginable is imposed on all news dispatches sent out from Madrid.”

Suddenly in Paris last week the Communist deputies withdrew their support without warning from the “Popular Front” Cabinet headed by Socialist Leon Blum because of his continued refusal to munition the Reds of Spain. M. Blum, after receiving one of the smallest votes of confidence since his Cabinet was formed, raged at the French Reds who had let him down, “I would resign if conditions were not so grave that my resignation would be understood neither at home nor abroad.”