WAR IN SPAIN: Famine

Aching hunger, rather than lack of munitions, has become Leftist Spain’s gravest problem. Leftists can point with pride that their troops have held their own for the last three months. Now Leftists are handicapped by this summer’s poor harvest, the cutting in two of Leftist territory, the feeding of 3,000,000 refugees who fled before Rightist advances, difficulties of transportation, ceaseless bombing, sinking of food ships bound for Leftist harbors.

It appeared last week that all these things combined have produced a food scarcity which, if not remedied, may very well force Leftist Spain to agree to a “Munich” mediation if not outright surrender.

For more than a year to each gnawing stomach of 900,000 Madrileños have been rationed only a few daily scraps of bread, a handful of rice, an occasional potato or orange, rancid olive oil, no sugar, mudlike coffee, little meat. Trees have been cut down, furniture broken up, destroyed houses and buildings whittled away to provide fuel for an undernourished population that feels now more than ever the wintry blasts that sweep down from the Guadarrama Mountains.

In primarily industrial Catalonia, her population swollen with refugees, her few railroads and highways glutted with military supplies, the possibility of famine was so urgent last week that Barcelona’s press bureau sent cables to U. S. Leftist sympathizers appealing for food. Should France and England grant belligerent rights to Rightist Spain—an increasing probability—and thus enable Generalissimo Francisco Franco legally to blockade Leftist ports, little food from the outside could get to Leftist Spain.

Despite a press campaign against anything but unconditional victory, even in Rightist Spain there was growing talk of mediation. Few U. S. or British newsmen covering Rightist Spain have stood in the good graces of Generalissimo Franco’s avid blue-penciling censors for long. Notable exception is New York Times Correspondent William P. Carney, who has minimized Italian help to the Rightists, mentioned Moorish troops infrequently, reported denials of large-scale executions, called the Rightists “Nationalists” and described the Rightist reoccupation of Teruel seven weeks before that city was retaken. Even ardent Rightist Carney last week apparently felt he had to go to Gibraltar before he cabled that mediation was “debated on all sides from every angle” in Rightist Spain.

Calling reports of disaffection exaggerated, Mr. Carney left-handedly discussed Generalissimo Franco’s popularity, made the perplexing statement that the Generalissimo was more popular in the south, traditionally Leftist, than in the north, which used to vote Right. He failed to explain why.

Meanwhile, Barcelona lived through one of its most terrifying 24 hours, marked by six Rightist air raids. For the first time since the war’s start the city saw a priest in full vestments march through the streets, carrying a cross, followed by Foreign Minister Julio Alvarez del Vayo and General José Riquelme, among others.

Occasion was the funeral of popular Captain Vicente de Eguía of the Militia, killed on the Ebro front.