By SEAN GRIFFIN

“When we went through
Relchite, it was like yesterday right

ere. It seemed we'd never left. The
destruction was like it was 40 years
90: every building was without a
"of; there were only chunks of
walls remaining. Franco had said
that the city would never be rebuilt
re that it would stand as a monu-
ment to show the destruction com-
mitted by the Republicans.

‘But it was Franco’s troops
Which destroyed Belchite. We could
ee have bombed the city the way
hey did — we just didn’t have the
Planes. In those last days when we
Jought back and forth trying to

Old the city, the fascist planes out-
Z numbered ours 12-1,
When we went through the
ruins, it was like going back to that
attle over again.’
_ —John Johnson, on returning
10 the Spanish town of Belchite

Belchite . . . Villanueva de ia
pannus ... Fuentes de Ebro...
‘tuel: Forty years ago the names

Marked battlefields where Cana-
ans stood together with Spaniards
¢ Others in the International
males to defend Spanish
pee acy, Today, some are
Veloping cities; others, like
ones de Ebro, have ploughed the’
“ches beneath fields of wheat.
But for the veterans of the
i patiizic Papineau Battalion who
oF a to Spain last month, each
fern towns brought an echo of
. celings voiced by John Johnson
| " returning to Belchite.
: visit me 30 veterans made the return
s to Spain, conceived and
"ganized following a meeting last
Year of the veterans’ association.
Ith them went a film crew, financ-
i by a Toronto veteran, William
| *Tennan.
i. The group represented about a
>. td of the surviving Canadian
cane — only a few of the more
#n 1,200 who crossed the
ose one by one to stand with
oeepanish republic against the
Raped onslaught of Franco’s
Ps, Mussolini’s soldiers and the
c Condor Legion.
aes death of Franco three years
cae the Mac-Paps desire to
— to see the country whose
MOcratic soil they had defended
to see how the new republic had

) “0 root after f ic-
tat Orship, our decades of dic

hee was a great feeling of
rec alled — and a'so exhilaration,”
five Lionel Edwards, one of
veterans from B.C., including
A Jo Norris, Fred Mattersdorfer,
te Ohnson and Gerry Delaney,

Made the trip. ‘There was
tetaar ts at seeing the bat-
th and unmarked graves of

e
Sie Canadians who died in

isi
at su there: was also exhilaration
Meetin 8 democracy restored and
sat People from trade unions
in the aac Parties who are active
Ife of the country.”’

the q has suddenly emerged from
“town a of the Franco years. In
Visited €t town where the veterans
’ returning to the scenes of
by to ae action, they were greeted
Munists Councils in which Com-
jority. and Socialists hold a ma-
unig the inspiring result of
Th <P al elections earlier this year.
aaa Coloma, outside the
they ‘an capital of Barcelona,
the oT Officially welcomed by
sq, ~MUunist mayor — who is

atholic priest.
alrazona, a town not far
bacete where the Interna-
Tigades were head-
the new democratic

Pain

tig l

Spaittted,
m

"aditions oe? with the anti-fascist
: two generations past.
a Mayor of Tarrazona is also

“Om: j ” 4
“His at Len Norris related,

€r was imprisoned and

*

later executed by Franco because he
was a Republican.

‘Although the mayor was only
12 years old at the time, he
remembers the Canadian com-
mander. I happened to have a pic-
ture of Ed Cecil-Smith (later to
become the commander of the Mac-
Paps) and I showed it to him. ‘Yes,’
he said, ‘that’s him.’ ”’

In the town, the old parade
ground where the Internationals
marched, and the old dining hall
still remain, Norris added, ‘‘I met
one old man who asked me if I
remembered the old school that we
used as a barracks. He said to me,
‘That was built by the Republic in
1931.’

-“It shows the old memories of

the Republic that still remain after
all those years,’’ Norris said.

The evidence of the Civil War,
despite the intervening four decades
and the advent of industrialization,
much of it by U.S. multinationals,
is also much in evidence, the
veterans found.

At Jarama and Brunete, where
Canadians saw some of their first
action on the Aragon front, the

trenches still cut across the land-—

scape.
The scars of the Civil War and
the Franco years are more than

physical, cutting deeply in the na-_

tional consciousness of Spain. In
the wake of the fascist takeover in
1939, more than 300,000 people,
supporters of the Republic cause,
were summarily executed by Fran-
co. Over half a million were forced
into exile. The prisons — at Burgos,
Alicante and elsewhere — were fill-
ed with thousands of others.

These former prisoners — the
‘ex-presos’’ as they are known in
Spanish — bear the scars of the past
most vividly. ‘‘That was the most
moving part of the visit — to meet
with the ex-presos, to talk with
them of their lives since the end of
the war, most of which were spent
in Franco’s prisons,”’ Norris said,
recalling two meetings, one in
Madrid and another in Barcelona,
with the former prisoners.

it was with the ex-presos
organizations — in Madrid and
Catalonia — that the Mac-Paps left
their association’s donations, turn-
ing over cheques for $500 to each
organization. :

But if the scars remain even forty
years after the Civil War, there has
also been a movement towards
reconciliation that has gathered
momentum in recent months.

“Our visit coincided with the in-
troduction in to the Cortes (Parlia-
ment) of a bill which would give
recognition to all former soldiers,
whether they were with the
Republicans or with Franco,” Ed-
wards said, adding that until now,
only Franco’s soldiers have been

nized.

ea Mattersdorfer himself en-
countered a former fascist officer
who was visiting Teruel at the same
time. ‘“‘He showed me the bullet
holes that you could see in the
buildings,’’ he recalled, ‘‘and he
talked with me about the battle.
Then he invited me to his home.

But reconciliation notwithstan-

ding, Mattersdorfer couldn’t quite
accept the invitation, however ge-
nuinely it may have been offered.
“I was still a little leary of going
home with a fascist officer, even
after forty years,’’ he said.

For the Canadians, Teruel was
also the site of tragedy as one of the
veterans from Toronto, George
Fiwchuk, was stricken by a heart at-
tack.late .at night after, arriving..in
the city. rae

Fittingly, however, he.had seen
his first major action at Teruel
where the Canadians formed part
of the shock force holding off a ma-
jor fascist counteroffensive.

‘*And George will be one Cana-
dian whose grave will-be marked in
Spain,’’ Edwards commented. He
was buried at Teruel and Bob Mat-
thews, a former Mac Pap lieute-
nant, is to return to Spain to ensure
that the gravestone is erected.

Throughout the tour in Spain,
from Madrid through the Aragon
front to Barcelona where, 40 years
before Dolores Ibarrurri, ‘“La Pa-
sionaria’’, had bid farewell to the
Internationals, the veterans were
hailed by Communists, Socialists,
the Workers’ Commissions and or-
dinary people who remembered
their heroism. But it was at the end
of the tour that was perhaps most
significant — with the first step
towards official recognition by their
Canadian government.

‘“When we first arrived in Spain,
we had inquired with the Canadian
embassy about the possibility of a
reception,” Edwards explained.

“And when we returned to Madrid,

the official invitations were
awaiting each of us.”’

At the reception, held on the eve
of their return to Canada, Com-
munist Party leader Santiago Car-
rillo joined representatives of the
Socialist Party, ambassadors from
other countries and the Canadian
charge d’affaires (the Canadian am-
bassador was away) in hailing the
assembled veterans.

Len Norris noted that Carrillo

- honored the Internationals as the

‘vanguard of the fight against
fascism’? — an honor that was en-
dorsed by all the others, including
the Canadian representative.

After four decades it was a major
beginning. Forty years before, the

‘returning Mac-Paps had been

railway cars, put aboard a ship and
then taken across Eastern Canada
in unscheduled trains. Last month,
they were -toasted by the official
representative of the federal
government.

That it was an indication of a
changing official attitude was also
seen-by the fact that Lionel Ed-
wards, .who..is. the. last. surviving
commanding officer of the Bat-
talion, was visited in Toronto by the
dominion president of the Cana-
dian Legion.

And the veterans are pressing the
case for recognition. A submission
is already in preparation and is ex-
pected to be presented to the federal
government over the next few mon-

whisked through France in sealed’

pain, 1979: the Mac-Paps return

|
— Sean Griffin photo
The Mac-Paps then and now:
Left, veterans of the Battalion,
headed by Major Ed Cecil-Smith
at the French frontier. Top, Four
B.C. veterans pose with Spanish
posters and tour map following
their return from Spain earlier
this month. L to r, Lionel Ed-
wards, John Johnson, Fred
Mattersdorfer, Len Norris.

ths. It will call on the federal
government to redress the forty-
year-old grievance and recognize _
the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion
veterans as Canadian soldiers. They
want the same status as the veterans
of two world wars, with a place in
veterans’ organizations,
hospitalization rights and pensions.

Only when that status is given
will..the.government: have given
recognition to what thousands of
Spaniards in #wns and villages
across Spain have known for forty ~
years: these men were the first to
fight fascism.

They were = and are — in
Dolores. Ibarrurri’s words, ‘‘the
heroic example of democracy’s
solidarity and unversality.’’

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OCT. 27 — YCL-Halloween Dance
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COMING EVENTS

SEPT. 29 — The Young Com-
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show of the recent World Festival
of Youth and Students, held in:

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Neighbourhood House, 535 E.
Broadway. $2 admission.
Refreshments, snacks and _ live
entertainment. ;

SEPT. 30 — Grandview-
Woodlands COPE pancake

breakfast, Sunday, Sept. 30, 10
a.m. .at David and Rosemary
Stone’s house, 2163 E. 3rd, Van.
Games and fun for all.

OCT. 6 — Social evening and
Soviet film show, 832 Calverhall
St., North Vancouver, 8 p.m. Ad-
mission $3.

OCT. 9 — Public meeting featuring
Prof. James Foulks, recently
returned from Vietnam. Slide
showing. Unitarian Church, 49th
and Oak at 8 p.m. Sponsored by
Canadian Aid for Vietnam Civilians.

OCT. 13 — Solidarity Cafe, 8 p.m.,
at the Ukrainian Hall, 805 E.
Pender. Folk music, food and
refreshments. Admission $1. Spon-
sored by GVRC.

’ NOV. 10 — Keep this date open for

the banquet celebrating the 62nd
anniversary of the Great October
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GVRC.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE— SEPTEMBER 28, 1979— Page 11