Franco's Private Cold War

...The British, too, began to show their annoyance over the Gibraltar agitation...

...In Madrid, the American Embassy warded off correspondents' queries with the words: "No comment...

...The American Ambassador, James Clement Dunn, read a carefully worded speech...

...This was followed by a sustained press and radio campaign denouncing French policy in Morocco...

...Then a select group of native dignitaries, headed by Grand Vizier Sidi Ahmed ben Abd-el-Krim el Haddad, traveled to Madrid to see Franco...

...A few days ago, a story came out of Washington to the effect that the American Government had instructed its Ambassador in Madrid to caution General Franco against his present course...

...nor, it added, would Spain ever accept any meddling in her foreign affairs...

...The Government-controlled press emphasized that "the world is moving toward those concepts from which we have never deviated" and insisted that, in reaching the bases deal with democratic America, authoritarian Spain had made no ideological concessions.(Just recently, on March 14 the Falangist paper Arriba labored the point when it lamented the disappearance of the Hitler-created "independent Slovakia" of 1939 and described the postwar Benes Government as "that monstrous Judeo-Masonic entity...

...The signing of the alliance was greeted with unconcealed jubilation by the regime, which now emerged intact and triumphant from a difficult postwar period marked by world ostracism and economic isolation...

...The French, who had tried hard to improve relations with Spain by such acts as proposing Spanish membership in UNESCO and supporting Spanish demands for a greater share in the administration of the international area of Tangier, were understandably furious...

...In the six months which have followed the signing of the alliance with the United States, they have become downright bad...

...It was mostly about the aid program, but at the end came a reference to the Communist danger confronting the world and the importance of maintaining unity in the West...

...The Caudillo's cold war on Britain and France goes on...

...And, just as casually, the gentle American hint was shrugged off as if it had never happened...

...In August, the French had exiled Sultan Mohammed V of Morocco without consulting Spain, co-protector of that nation...

...One week later, the United States tactfully and in a roundabout way tried to get Spain to call off its agitation against the British and French...

...A "Loyalty Pay" rally was staged near Tetuan, at which Moroccan notables, assembled from various parts of the Spanish protectorate, declared that they rejected the authority of the new Sultan in the French zone, Muley Arafa...

...Three days after the first American arms shipment arrived at Cartagena, Laborite MP Phillip Noel-Baker put this question to Parliament: "Can the Under-Secretary [for Foreign Affairs] say against whom it is thought that General Franco will require these tanks...

...The reaction came by way of the Spanish Embassy in Lisbon, which denied that such a move had been made...

...In January, agitation reached a degree of violence never attained before and culminated in the stoning and mobbing of the British Embassy in Madrid and of British property in Seville, Granada, Valencia and Malaga...

...Addressing 150,000 Falangists massed in Madrid's Chamartin soccer stadium last October 29, General Franco declared that "the world situation and the vicious campaign which Soviet-inspired foreign conspirators directed against Spain made it advisable to work in silence and to avoid acts which could be exploited by the malice of our enemies abroad...

...The case of Gibraltar is so grave that it goes beyond our frontiers,'' said "Macauley...

...Spain has stretched her patience to the limit in dealing with Britain, [which, after the war,] in tacit agreement over division of zones of influence, and behind the back of the United States, handed half Of Europe over to Russia...

...The Caudillo greeted them with these words: "It is not surprising that, once the political basis of the protectorate had been broken by the violent action of France, you should raise your lament and your protest...

...Falangist leader Eugenio Montes gave the measure of pro-Franco exuberance when, facing a blue-shirted audience, he exulted: "After the fall of Hitler and Mussolini, it was predicted abroad that before long 'the third man' would also disappear, but those who said this underestimated Franco and the reality of Spain...

...Is this deterioration related to Spain's new-found strength deriving from partnership with America...

...This seemingly innocuous remark was understood here for what it was --a reminder to Spain that Britain and France are our allies, not our enemies--for, although the speech got a big play in the papers, the sentence quoted above was quietly censored out of all the published texts...

...FRANCOS PRIVATE COLD WAR Spanish dictator baits France and Britain By Richard Mowrer Madrid Under Franco, Spain's relations with Great Britain and France have never been cordial...

...But now, he implied, Spain would go forward to new triumphs...

...It is with encouragement," Dunn said, "that we have witnessed the unity so notably displayed by the United States, Great Britain and France at the recent meeting in Berlin--a unity which held fast despite diversionary tactics which sought to divide and play off one against the other...

...Within a few weeks, the constant campaign for the return of Gibraltar to Spain had been fanned to brighter flame by the press and radio...

...It would seem so, judging from the revived self-assurance and aggressive vitality manifested in official quarters since last September 26...

...Is it against us at Gibraltar, against the Spanish people, or the French in Morocco...

...The press campaign, particularly over Gibraltar, continued, highlighted by an article in Arriba under the signature of one "Macauley," believed to be a Franco pseudonym...

...General Franco opened a carefully prepared diplomatic offensive against France...

...The London announcement that Queen Elizabeth would visit the 250-year-old British possession in May added fuel to the fire...

...This gave Franco an opening which he now proceeded to exploit to increase his prestige among the Arab states at the expense of France...

...On another front...