Plain Talk in Spanish

Cuba's shrewd, ebullient President Fulgencio Batista is no dilettante in power politics. He is a tough hombre who speaks his mind. Last week, after visiting with Washington dignitaries in the U.S., Batista said his piece about a pompous, would-be tough guy across the Atlantic. His theme: If the United Nations go to war with Francisco Franco's Spain, Latin America will be on the United Nations' side.

In Cuba, President Batista said, the only elements that would not applaud such a move are Cuban Falangists, now being rounded up in droves as fifth columnists. Possibly there was some hyperbole in Batista's claim that an invasion of Spain would receive "a total ovation for the Allied cause throughout all Latin America." But, by being blunt, Batista expressed for the first time the sentiments of millions of good friends of democracy in the Western Hemisphere who are tired of apologies and flatteries for Franco.

Bashed in the nose diplomatically, the Axis plugged new life into its propaganda machine. The theme: Batista's remarks are a warning that "the Anglo-Saxon empires are planning to use Spain to create a new base against the Axis powers." Axis broadcasts spread a report that Juan Negrin, last premier of the Spanish Republic, had arrived in Morocco from Britain (where, last week, he was still living quietly in Hertfordshire), to build a political pre-invasion bridgehead to Spain. On more solid ground, a Berlin broadcast aligned "Franco Spain" with "National Socialist Germany, Fascist Italy, Laval France."

Officially Franco still remained neutral. He sent his Foreign Minister, Count Francisco Gomez Jordana y Souza, and twelve military and diplomatic bigwigs for wining, dining and a joint accord on neutrality and anti-Communism with neighboring Portugal.* He welcomed home General Agustin Munoz Grande, recently decorated (by Hitler) commander of the Falangist Blue Division fighting in Russia. From his train window at the border, the general shouted: "Long live the mothers who begat the most valiant soldiers in the world." At San Sebastian Falangist crowds cheered his prophecy of "certain Nazi victory over Russian Bolshevism." As forgetful of Spain's claimed neutrality as Franco was in addressing the Falangist National Council (TIME, Dec. 21), the Falangist crowds set up their old cry for the return of Gibraltar, chanted cheers for "Franco, Spain and Germany."

* Portuguese newspapers reported that it was the first time in 300 years that a Spanish foreign minister had paid an official call in Lisbon.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.