(2 of 6)
The final collapse of the Basque defense liberated some 50,000 Rightist troops for use on other fronts—and none too soon, for the Leftists immediately loosed a savage but apparently unsuccessful drive on Saragossa, the Rightist advance base on the Aragon front. 200 miles to the southeast. The Basque collapse also all but completely nipped off that little Leftist island on the north coast which has so long blemished the otherwise total dominance of the northern and western half of Spain by the Rightist forces. This territory last week was populated by 14,000,000 of Spain's 25,000,000 people in 35 of her 50 provinces. To the governments of Germany, Italy. Switzerland, Albania, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala it has been for almost a year an autonomous state. Significantly, the Vatican, too—which, whatever else may be said, works as hard over its diplomacy as any first class power—chose the day after Santander's fall to extend de facto recognition. Having cooled his heels in Rome for three months. Pablo de Churruca, Marques de Aycimena, accredited Chargé d'Affaires to the Lateran Palace from General Franco's Government, was summoned by the Papal Secretary of State, Eugenic Cardinal Pacelli, who graciously, if belatedly, accepted his credentials.
The State which seven others and the Vatican (de facto) recognize as the newest of the Earth's States is, on the whole, naturally wealthier than the State it must conquer to survive. Leftist Spain has the mercury mines of Almaden. But these are more than matched by Rightist Spain's coal, iron, copper. The country's olive orchards, cork forests, vineyards are about evenly split between the two warring groups. The Leftists control the orange groves in the eastern province of Valencia, and thus the principal Spanish export in normal times. But the Rightists own Spain's bread basket, the great granary of the northwest, leaving to Valencia the problem of feeding 40% of Spain's population from her less agricultural provinces.
Rightist Spain is the territory governed from Salamanca, is, due to the inevitable inability of dictatorships to popularize themselves outside their boundaries, less known than any other equally important government in the world. Now in the 14th month of its history, it is running fairly smoothly as a totalitarian state. The leader of all totalitarian states must have a potent sounding title. Hitler's is the Führer. Mussolini's is II Duce. Franco's is El Caudillo (the chief). He is not only chief of the army, but chief of all Rightist Spain's political, social and economic activities. Like Germany and Italy (and Russia) in fact, in theory, Rightist Spain is a one-party country. The party is called the Spanish Phalanx of Traditionalists and Offensive National Syndicalist Juntas. Actually, Rightist Spain is no more dominated by one party than Leftist Spain. The little villagers of the northwest are ablaze with the slogan: ONE COUNTRY, ONE ARMY, ONE CAUDILLO. But no such unity prevails among the wildly assorted groups which are loosely allied in support of the Spanish Fascist State:
1) The regular army which would prefer a straight military dictatorship, if possible no restoration of the monarchy.