One day last month the Falange Española's newsorgan Arriba whipped out a jingo editorial announcing that Spain was no longer neutral but nonbelligerent. A few days later Generalissimo Francisco Franco officially embraced this policy, laid claim to Gibraltar and an unspecified piece of North Africa. Last week Arriba again applied the point of a pin to El Caudillo's chubby behind. Producing a brand-new term to baffle international lawyers, Arriba declared that Spain was now a "moral belligerent."
"No one can fail to consider England as the most direct violator of our destiny," shouted Arriba. "Spain was first a neutral, then nonbelligerent, and now is physically on the verge of battle."
Spain, although devastated and decimated by 32 months of World War II's dress rehearsal, last week found herself in much the same position that Italy was in last spring: in the open season decreed by Germany, grabbers were keepers; if Spain continued to keep the peace, things she wanted might be snatched from under her nose.
Like Italy too, Spain wants more as the chances of getting more increase. Until last spring she wanted only to be left alone. Then, as Italy began screaming about her "Mediterranean shackles," Spain awoke to the fact that the two-century-old British possession of Gibraltar was a national disgrace. Smooth-talking Sir Samuel Hoare went to Madrid and lost no time in indicating to Franco that Great Britain was willing to make a deal over Gibraltar. The terms of the deal were supposed to be that after the war Britain would give the Rock back to Spain, lease it until international disarmament could be effected; meanwhile Britain would finance Spanish reconstruction in return for continued neutrality. With a national debt of some $2,000,000,000 staring him in the face, El Caudillo was naturally interested.
Then the German Army ripped through France. The Germans lined the road on the French side of the Hendaye bridge with tanks and motorized equipment to a depth of a mile and a half. This implied threat and, even more, the influence of his strongman brother-in-law, Ramón Serrano Suñer, led Franco to change his mind.
El Cuñadissimo. Spaniards' designation of Don Ramón as the brother-in-law-issimo is a none-too-gentle jibe at both Serrano and the Generalissimo. Privately they sometimes call Franco "that pulpy olive fashioned into the likeness of a man." For most Spaniards feel that Franco is a wobbler, that Ramón Serrano Suñer is the power behind the fasces.
Don Ramón heads the Ministry for Press & Propaganda and so determines what Spaniards learn. He controls the police and so determines who shall live free or in prison. He heads the Ministry of Government (Interior), which now includes the Ministry of Communications, and so controls the post office, telephone, telegraph and cable systems. He heads the Falange Española Tradicionalista and so bosses Spain's sole political party, its 2,000,000 members, 800,000 associated female Falangistas and 600,000 Falange youths.