CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The Civil War In Spain

General Mola said:  “Following the election of the Socialist government in Spain, and the king’s withdrawal from the country, there was an absolute avalanche of public officials who rushed to the Grand Orient Lodges to request entry.  They thought they could thus be free of the persecution which had been practiced by the majority of Masons in the government.  Their purpose was to give evidence of their republicanism and to prevent the certainty of having their careers ruined.”

Immediately after the king had left, Franco told the Military Academy, of which he was then in charge, “The republic has been proclaimed in Spain.  It is the duty of all at the present time to co-operate with their discipline and allegiance so that peace may reign and the nation be permitted to direct itself through the natural judicial channels.  Hitherto, at the Academy, there has always been discipline and exact fulfilment of duty.  To-day these qualities are even more necessary;  the Army needs, serenely, and with a united spirit, to sacrifice every thought of ideology to the good of the nation and the tranquility of the fatherland.”  The wording of this proclamation shows Franco to be anything but a “Black” Nazi which Communist propaganda would have the public believe him to be.

But the Secret Powers were not willing to give the republican government a chance to operate in an efficient and democratic way.  Churchill wrote:  “The Communists helped set it up so they could knock it down again and create more political and economic chaos, until they had the country, and the people, in such a state that the leaders could advocate with reason, that only a proletarian dictatorship could restore law and order and save the day.”

Having overthrown the monarchy in Spain, the next logical move was to attack the religion of the people.  Secularism was introduced into the schools.  A campaign was launched to destroy parental authority and that of the Church.  Having created thousands of anti-religious, and anti-social young Bolsheviks, it was only necessary to await the opportunity to turn the masses loose against the forces of law and order in a well-planned revolt.

On May 14th, 1931, a meeting was held in the Ateneo Club, in Madrid, to discuss the new political programme.

Its eight points were :
1.  Creation of a republican dictatorship.
2.  Immediate punishment of all responsible for illegal acts under the dictatorship.
3.  Disbanding the Civil Guard, the Army, and the police, etc., and the substitution of armed republicans chosen from the labouring classes and Republican Clubs.
4.  Confiscation of property of religious orders.
5.  Nationalization of land.
6.  Suppression of all press agencies hostile to the Republican cause.
7.  Utilization of technical schools and other buildings for the public good.
8.  Postponement of the Cortes until this programme had been carried out.

Azana, an intellectual Liberal;  Prieto — a socialist;  and Caballero, a Communist, were three of the most prominent political leaders at this time.  Azana, with his tongue in his cheek, publicly opposed such radical suggestions, although he secretly approved.  When elected to power he put the programme into effect.

In due course the ‘Cortes Constituyentes’ was elected.  Under the excuse of “Law for the defence of the Republic”, a ruthless dictatorship was set up — The only democratic feature about it was its name “the Republic of the Workers”.  A Moscow trained revolutionary, Jiminez Asua drafted the new Constitution.^[1]  Azana now concentrated his entire efforts on destruction of the churches and persecution of religious orders.  In December 1932, he set up the “League of Atheism”.  He financed its periodical ‘Sin Dios’ (The Godless), out of public funds.  All these moves were made in the name of democracy.  The leaders told the people they were being liberated from the control of the religious orders, and the clergy who, they said, were allied to feudalism and tyrannical monarchs.

In Catalonia the revolutionary activities which General Prime, de Rivera had subdued broke out again.  By January 1933, the London Morning Post correspondent reported “Huge stocks of bombs, rifles, and ammunition are being found by the police all over Spain.  An enormous amount of money is being spent to foster the revolutionary cause.  Many of those arrested, though to all appearances not well paid, carried note-cases full of bank-notes.”^[2]

Next an uprising in Asturia was organized, and on September 14th, 1934 a report was issued which implicated war officials and army officers in the sale of Arms.

General Franco made a desperate effort to try to re-organize the Spanish Army and put an end to Anarchy, but he obtained little support from government authorities.  To indicate how well the Communist underground was organized, over three hundred churches were set afire at exactly the same time in a hundred different cities and towns.  The assassination of individuals the revolutionaries wanted removed, became so common that ‘Professional Pistoleros’ became competitive.  It was possible to have an enemy liquidated for 50 pesetas (a little more than $5.00 American).  The Moscow agents used the confused conditions existing in Spain to carry out Lenin’s mandate:  “The Communist legal Code is to base terrorism on fundamental principles.”^[3]

Torture, mutilation, rape, burnings, bloodshed, and death, were the methods by which Communism tried to obtain power.  Conditions deteriorated from bad to worse.  By the beginning of 1936 the whole country was in a state of turmoil.  President Alcala Zamora dissolved the Cortes.  February 16th was set as the date for a general election.  Gil Robles, and Calvo Sotelo, stamped the country on a straight anticommunist ticket.  Bolshevik election propaganda was issued by ‘The Friends of Russia’.

Largo Caballero was in prison at this time for the part he had played in a revolutionary uprising.  He was interviewed by Mr. Edward Knoblaugh who afterwards wrote “Correspondent in Spain”.

Caballero said :  “We will win at least 265 seats.  The whole existing orders will be overturned.  Azana will play Kerensky to my Lenin.  Within five years the republic will be so organized that it will be easy for my party to use it as a stepping stone to our objective.  A union of the Iberian Republics ... that is our aim.  The Iberian Peninsula will again be one country.  Portugal will come in peaceably we hope, but by force if necessary.  YOU SEE BEHIND THESE BARS THE FUTURE RULER OF SPAIN.  Lenin declared Spain would be the second Soviet Republic in Europe.  Lenin’s prophecy will come true.  I shall be the second Lenin who shall make it come true.”

After the most completely dishonest election Spain ever endured, President Zamora wrote :  “The Popular Front was hoisted into power on the 16th of February, thanks to an electoral system as absurd as it is unfair, which gives an extraordinary advantage to a relative majority though absolutely it may be a minority.  Thus in a certain constituency the Popular Front with 30,000 votes less than the opposition was nevertheless able to win ten seats out of thirteen, though in no part of the constituency did the number of votes exceed those of its major adversary by more than 2 per cent.  Paradoxical cases of this kind were fairly common.”

In spite of the illegal means employed, first count only gave the Popular Front 200 seats out of a possible 465.  Thus it became the largest minority group in the parliament, but did not have enough seats to form a government.  The next move was for the Popular Front members to join forces with the Basque, and other minority groups.  They elected a Committee to verify the election returns in each constituency.  They made sure the final returns were favourable to the Popular Front Party.  In several cases Rightist candidates were disqualified and Popular Front candidates were elected as deputies in their place.  When the “fixing” was all over the Popular Front had the 265 seats Caballero predicted they would have... But even after all this had happened, the final breakdown of the votes showed : —

For ‘Centre’ and ‘Right’ parties ........... 4,910,000
For the ‘Popular Front’ .......................... 4,356,000
‘Right Centre’ majority : 554,000

It must be understood that Popular Front candidates elected to the Spanish Cortes represented every kind of individual from the very mild socialist to the dyed-in-the-wool Bolshevik.

The Stalinites created so much chaos that hellish conditions broke out all over Spain.  Previous to the February elections in 1936 the governmental record in Spain was as follows :

From the end of the Prime de Rivera dictatorship in 1931 there had been one revolution with 2,500 persons killed, seven revolts, 9,000 strikes, five prorogations of the budget, two billion pesetas increase in charges, 1,000 municipalities suspended, 114 newspapers forbidden, two and a half years of “States of Exception” (equivalent to our state of martial law).  After six weeks of popular front government under Azana, Caballero, and Prieto the record read : —

Assaults and robberies :  At Political headquarters, 58;  At public and private establishments, 105;  At churches, 36.  Fires : At political headquarters, 12;  Public and private establishments, 60;  Churches, 106.  Disturbances: General strikes, 11;  Risings and revolts, 169;  Persons killed, 76;  Wounded, 346.

Caballero, speaking at Zaragoza, said : “Spain must be destroyed in order to remake it ours.  On the day of vengeance we will leave not a stone upon a stone.”

Caballero also declared : “Before the elections we ask for what we want.  After the elections we will take what we want by any means.  ‘The Right’ must not expect mercy from the workers.  We shall not again spare the lives of our enemies.”

footnotes