SPAIN NOW INDEPENDENT OF MARSHALL AID PLAN
From Our Correspondent in Spain Spain is now independent of the Marshall Aid Phu This is the immediate and most obvious effect of th, " Franco-Peron Protocol," as it is called, the trade agree merit between the Argentine and Spain, which tea. signed in Buenos Aires last week.
The agreement in its general terms provides for a loan of .1350 million pesos to Spain, at the rate of 350 million pesos a year from the date of signature till 1951. it is interesting to
What remains over and above will be credited to the Argentine in Spain in the form of active participation in Spanish business and cultural activities which shall be judged to be in the interests of the two nations.
These are said to include: (I) The construction in Spanish dockyards of ships and other naval material for the Argentine. .
(2) The construction in Spanish ports of silos, warehouses and special refrigerating plants for the storing of Argentine goods destined for Europe.
(3) The participation of the Argentine in some industrial and agricultural societies in Spain with the idea of mutual help in these industries between the two countries.
A NEW ERA
It is certain that this agreement will mark the opening of a new era in Spanish-Argentine relations, and will bring the active co-operation between this country and the South American slates to a new level.
Indeed it would not be surprising to hear of a pact of mutual help between all these countries and Spain.
There is no doubt that it is a most favourable agreement for Spain and will make her independent of the European Recovery programme, as Marshall Aid is now called.
The very contradictory statements front America about Spain's inclusion in the Plan have been received here with the usual disdain. But much interest was aroused by the long talks Mr. Myron Taylor had with Franco and his Foreign Minister, though no details of the talks were revealed, and Mr. Myron Taylor refused to talk politics in the Press conference which he gave.
IS THERE BOYCOTT ?
Is there an unofficial boycott of Spain in British exports, if so why? Recently lists were published in all the main agricultural districts of Spain of the agricultural machinery which would be on sale in the next few months.
Most of the American types of tractors, harrows, etc., were in evidence but there was not a single British machine on the list, not at least in the one which I was able to get hold of.
Further even before the opening of the French frontier it was possible to buy some French luxury goods in the Spanish shops at reasonable prices but our usual British brands of fountain-pens, razors, typewriters. etc., were nowhere to be found.
British cars too are nowhere to be seen while American makes are now arriving, it is true, in reduced numbers.