ing the

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IFTEEN years ago, in Feb-
ruary, 1936, the people oi

Spain went to thempells and
elected their first trulyv»nep-
resentative government, the
People’s Front government
in which all republican and
working class parties rang-
ine from center to extreme
left were included.

What should have been the
beginning of a new democratic
advance for Spain was thwarted
by the fascist rebellion headed
by General Francisco Franco.
‘For three years civil war raged
throughout Spain and, forced to

defend their newly-won liberties,

with arms in their hands, the
Spanish people reached new
heights of democratic achieve-
ment. But German and Italian
fascist aid to Franco and the

hypocritical policy of ‘“non-in-
tervention” adopted by Britain
and France denied them the

victory for which they fought so
heroically,

Three years later Franco’s fas-
cist mercenaries were in ruined
Madrid and Barcelona, _thous-
ands of Spanish workers were
facing fascist firing squads and
Other thousands were. being forc-
ed into exile, in France, Britain,
the Soviet Union and the coun-
tries of Latin America.

Where are they today, these
refugees .from Franco’s fascist
terror whose children have
srown up, speaking their native
tongue, cherishing the brave
democratic traditions of their
People but. never knowing their
native land?) What has happen-
ed, in the intervening years of
& world war to destroy fascism,
to those thousands of Spanish
refugees who fled Franco only
to experience the terror of the
Nazi Occupation of France and
the quisling Vichy regime?
Many of these Spanish refugees,
Striking back at the fascist ter-

Yor they understood so well,
Served in. the French. under-
Stound: Many of them were

&mong the heroes of the: Resist-
ance who gave their lives fight-
Nazis whose bayonets
placed Franco in power. They
did so in the hope that a new
free France would be their ally
in the struggle for a new free
Spain.

But France of the Marshall
Plan and the Atlantic Pact is
far from the bright dreams of
the Resistance. ‘among the first
Victims of a policy that betrays
the interests of the French peo-
ples to the schemes of American
imperialists who see Franco as
® potential ‘ally are the Spanish
refugees in France,

'

At midnight on September 6
last year, French police arrest-
€d 151 Spanish Republicans in
exile, sending 86 to Algeria and
65 to the Isle of Corsica. Among
them were almost all the staff
members of the Varsovie Hos-
pital at Toulouse, the hospital
which since 1939 has cared for
the victims of Franco’s terror.

According to the French auth-
Orities, these are “dangerous
people.” The raid on the hos-
pital was carried out in a man-
ner all too reminiscent of Hit-
ler’s Gestapo — patients were
thrown from their beds in a
Search for non-existent weapons
and finally the director, Dr.
Bosch, two other doctors, the
administrator and the account-
ant were arrested and deported
to Corsica,

With some difficulty, the Joint
Anti-Fascist Refugee Commit-
tee in the United States succeed-
ed in obtaining ‘news of these
refugees. According to Espana
Popular, a Spanish Republican
Paper published in Mexico City,
they are living in the most
dreadful conditions,

For example, a group of nine
live in a small village called

Pr Wee at ae fe be by

(BUSSE ENE

Their crime was
that they fought

PCR eee eee ee By ROSALEEN ROSS De STE Ene Te Ent de TOP ar et Se TTT a

*

SSR

France.

North Africa.

Beni Hijdel under strict sur-
veillance, They are housed in
a room 10 feet by 12 and sleep
on a cement’ floor without blan-
kets. {

Thirty-five deportees were sent
to the District of Aumale, about
80 miles from Algiers. They
Jack living quarters and have
spent all the money they took
with them. ~The municipality re-
fuses to attend to their needs.
They are willing to work but
cannot because there is not
enough work even for the local
residents. :

‘A letter smuggled out by one
of the deportees says:

“After four days of moral and
physical suffering,

treated like

fascism

savage beasts, pushed from
Lyons to Marseilles, they did
not lose any time in shipping us
to Algiers. From Algiers we
were sent to the small village
of Ain-Boucif about 200 kilo-
meters away.

“Here our guards assigned us
to a stable—no sanitary. condi-
tions — and we are forced to
sleep on the floor. We are sup-
posed to be at liberty, but this,
is almost like a concentration
camp. The right to work .
this is impossible as this is only
a small mountainous village.

“The majority of my compan-
ions are ill, two are paralytics.
We have no money as we dis-
tributed whatever we did have

Thirteen years ago Spanish refugees from Franco's terror were pouring across the border into
Today, many of them, heroes of the wartime Resistance, languish in French hell camps in

among all of us and now even
this is gone. Nourishing food is
scarce. It is urgent that funds
reach us so that we may live.
We hope you will come to the
aid of my companions who are
sick and without any funds.”

* The Joint Anti-Fascist Refu-
gee Committee has. sent food
parcels to one group of depor-
tees and has received acknow-
ledgment of them. In a letter
to the Committee Fermin Tor-
ralba, accountant of the Varsovie
Hospital, expresses his deep
gratitude for the solidarity of
his friends in “America and goes
on to say:

“T am a modest employee of

the Varsovie Hospital. In it I
worked as an accountant. I was
arrested on the morning of Sep-
tember 7. Since then I have
been deported to Corsica, forced
to live with three other com-
patriots in a spot 10 kilometres
from the nearest town, without
electricity or any utensils other
than those we can fashion with
our axes.

“During the Nazi occupation
of France, I had the honor of
fighting as a captain of the Par-

tisans. Several of my comrades
reached high rank. Many of
them - received the highest

¥rench military decorations and
many were very seriously wound-
ed.. Others know of life in the
concentration camps of Dachau
and Mathausen. All of this oc-
curred after fighting Franco for
three years. But Franco still
remains and he must be repaid
in. some manner for the bloody
repression he inflicts upon the
Spanish people.” :

French

ing citizens, including many So-
cialist and MRP mayors, have
issued an appeal to action
against German rearmament
and for defense of French in-
dependence.

fin the southeast, a federation

of all existing veterans organ-
ization — 14 groups comprising
60,000 to 80,000 members—went
on record supporting the cam-
paign. This is-in a region where
the population is mostly \Cath-
olic and engaged in farming.

I asked him also about the
growing trend of “neutralism” in
France. He said if is an im-
portant current.

“All the people of France un-
derstand the danger of war,” he
said, “and they also understand
the adventurist nature of the
risks engaged in by the US.
warmongers, such as the rearm-
ament of Germany. But not all
are as yet convinced that the
Soviet Union is fighting for
peace. Therefore, we must con-
tinue to clarify issues and win
them to our side.

“It is especially important to
make it known to all. that the
appeal to the United Nations
adopted at the Second ‘World
Peace. Congress at Warsaw
points the only way to peace.
Moreover, it is an appeal that
can be accepted by everybody.”

Even within the short period
that has elapsed since the con-
clusion of the Stockholm peace
pledge campaign. which -was
such a magnificent success in
France, the peace camp has be-
come still stronger. The deci-
sion to rearm Germany has mov-
ed many people into action who
before, while anti-war, were pas-
sive.

“We are confident,” Vigne
said, “that even more people
will participate in the national
referendum against a new Wehr-
macht than the number that
signed the Stockholm pledge.”

Fifteen million residents of
France signed the Stockholm
pledge. Fifteen million! And
now it will be more. More than
15 million who will say “no”
to German rearmament, “no” to
the Nazis, “no” to General Bis-
enhower, “no” to war, More
than 15 million, speaking for
the whole of France.

Would Acheson care to hold
a poll of those in France who
fayor German rearmament?

The Joint Anti-Facist Refugee
Committee states that anyone
wishing to send a package of
food can address it to: Fermin
Torralba, “es Cyckamens,” Pila
Canale, Corsica, France, or to
Secours Populaire, Algerien, 21
Rue Bat-azoum, Algiers, North
Africa.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 26, 1951 — Page 5

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