SPAIN: Long Live Dynamite!

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fighting under such banners as LONG LIVE DYNAMITE! A speech by Socialist Prieto in which he urged the Government militia to moderate their excesses brought a violent counter blast from Communist Deputy Dolores ("The Passion Flower") Ibarruri:— "Im- prison the wives and children of all who are fighting the Government! . . . The life of each militiaman fighting at the front must be guaranteed by holding the mother or child of a traitor as hostage!" In Madrid hospitals, where most of the trained nurses have always been Sisters of Mercy, these nuns were ejected last week by untrained radical nurses despite the protests of Madrid doctors who warned that the death rate among the wounded was already abnormally high. Big as two cartoon Capitalists, Madrid's huge-paunched Pedro Rico Lopez ("The Fattest Mayor in Europe") remained an amazing demon of dynamic work, waddling furiously about as he bellowed orders, made successful efforts to keep food supplies moving into the capital.

Money Talks. This week Generalissimo Franco hurled new offensive—? with redoubled violence in efforts to take Madrid swiftly, and a dispatch from the capital reported that President Manuel Azaňa of Spain had made all preparations to flee, if necessary, to. Valencia, whither he had sent several truckloads of his personal effects.

Premature reports several times had Government militia killing "The Richest Man in Spain," august and autocratic Count Romanones. He was three times Premier under the Monarch", and, after King Alfonso fled, escorted Queen Victoria Eugenie to the train and saw her safely out of Madrid. Last week proud Count Romanones was let out of a San Sebastian jail, reputedly after making "charitcble contributions" of 2,000,000 pesetas ($260,000). Arriving in France, he was obsequiously met by an undersecretary of the Cabinet of Socialist Premier Leon Blum. Snorted the old Monarchist: "I was not afraid because I knew I was protected by those I always had commanded and who always obeyed!"

Observers could put upon this no other interpretation except that money always has talked and is still talking in Spain, even to the most rabid Reds into whose clutches multimillionaires may fall. With his extremely rugged individualism, Count Romanones snorted further that of course the Monarchy still would be in power if it had made judicious concessions to the proletariat a little sooner, and that of course Spain's Government has no alternative except to fight the Whites. "As a Spaniard," snapped the Count, "I suffer to see all this misfortune befall my country!"

"Force with Force" Adolf Hitler's personal newsorgan Vőlkischer Beobachter thundered last week: "The halting and search of the German steamer Kamerun on the high seas by [Spanish Government] Red Marxist marines is a serious breach of international law."

"A Spanish warship that no longer deserves the name has halted a German steamer on the high seas. . . ." echoed Berlin's Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. "This ship was under the orders of mutineers who at the beginning of the Spanish civil war murdered their officers and threw them overboard. Therefore it is not only a breach of international law but worse that has happened!"