SPAIN: Cunadissimo’s Return

Many things happened during the 19 days that Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s big-shot brother-in-law, RamÓn Serrano Suner, spent in Berlin and Rome. Japan joined the Axis. Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini made grandiose plans to conquer much of the world. The war moved toward the Mediterranean, which Don RamÓn’s country bounds on the west (see p. 34). And Don RamÓn Serrano Suner, Minister of Government and leader of Spain’s dominant Falangist Party, saw many interesting sights and talked to many important people, including Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. But Spain did not join the Axis.

Last week, as Don Ramon prepared to leave Rome for Madrid, it was announced that he and Il Duce had discussed plans for an Arab revolt to be fomented by Spain and guided by Mussolini under his title of Defender of Islam. This was nonsense. Spaniards and Moslems have been enemies since the 8th Century. The talk about an Arab revolt was designed either to cover a real Axis plan involving Spain or to conceal the failure of the Axis and El Cunadissimo to sell Brother-in-Law Franco on war.

Francisco Franco has neither the will nor the power to deny German troops passage through his peninsula, especially since it was announced this week that Gestapo Chief Heinrich Himmler would soon pay a visit to Spain. But since Spain has not enough food to feed Spaniards, much less a German Army, it is doubtful whether the Axis will try to storm Gibraltar until it thinks the job can be done quickly. And when Generalissimo Franco hears the count of nine over Britain, Spain will jump into the ring.

Don Ramon was sorry, if not humiliated, that his brother-in-law’s caution prevented him from doing more for his important friends. One thing he could do: snub the Vatican, and he pointedly refrained from asking for an audience. The Vatican’s Osservatore Romano as pointedly took note of the omission in a paragraph that was clearly a rebuke. But the Vatican can neither blockade Spain nor help her to recover Gibraltar.

Italian Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano hurried down from Brennero to say good-by to his Spanish friend before he flew back to Madrid from Rome. When Don Ramon alighted at Madrid’s airport the people of Spain had already been told that they were remaining nonbelligerent, had shown their relief by demonstrating in the streets. They were glad to welcome El Cunadissimo home under such circumstances. Don RamÓn reviewed picked contingents of the Falangist militia, then rushed home to see his sixth child, borne by Señora Suñer the night before. It was a girl.