Replies To French Writers
Strife On U.S. Catholic Battle Front
THIS WEEK IS THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE OUTBREAK OF THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR, THE IMMEDIATE OCCASION OF WHICH WAS THE MURDER OF CALVO SOTELO ON JULY 13, 1936, AND WHICH ACTUALLY BEGAN WITH THE DECLARATION ON JULY 18 BY GENERA(, FRANCO AND OTHER LEADERS THAT THE NATIONAL REVOLT TO FREE SPAIN FROM THE COMMUNIST DOMINATION HAD BEGUN.
The progress of the war is illustrated by the accompanying map and the detailed explanation below it.
In the international sphere the third year opens with the hope that intervention on either side will be diminished through the London Agreement and that limited belligerent rights will be accorded to both sides at an early date. Short of an armistice, which is most unlikely, or a sudden collapse on the Red side, it is not expected that the war can end before the summer of 1939. It is unlikely, however, that there can be much effective resistance after the capture of Valencia, except in Catalonia.
The end of the second year has been marked by some underlining of the differences in Catholic attitudes to the war. In his speech on the celebration of the capture of Bilbao, Senor Suner, Nationalist Minister of the Interior, made a strong attack upon Catholics out of sympathy with the Nationalist aims, in particular upon M. Maritain, the French philosopher, and the famous French Catholic daily, La Croix.
Sr. Suner's words are reported below, together with replies by French writers and papers.
Views of Catholics in America are also described by our New York Correspondent.
Further light is thrown on the conflict of ideas by a letter addressed to the Catholic Herald by the Marquis Merry del Val, Spanish Ambassador in London for many years, in which he describes the present behaviour of Red officials.
Comment—page 8