Mass Torture?

When the defeated Loyalist Catalan Army was pushed over the Spanish frontier into France, one of the greatest exoduses of modern times took place. France had on her hands her greatest refugee problem. The way that problem was handled had developed, by last week, into a world scandal.

Although amply warned of the huge human tide approaching, the French Government made few advance arrangements to receive the refugees. It had thought it would be a matter of only a few weeks before most refugees would return to their homeland. Indeed, one of the reasons advanced for quick recognition of Generalissimo Francisco Franco's Government was that it would facilitate the refugees' return.

Month ago the estimated number of Spanish refugees on French soil was 380,000. Last week French Minister of the Interior Albert Sarraut revised the estimate upward to 450,000. Moreover, far from decreasing, the refugee population was steadily increasing. Hundreds were still slipping over the Catalan border. The Loyalist Navy's surrender in French Africa last week brought 4,000 more.

Few of the exiles want to return to Spain. Stories of dire reprisals awaiting them in Spain have reached the refugee camps by grapevine. Typical of how news travels among the refugees was the method adopted by a recent fugitive from Catalonia. Forbidden by French authorities to make a speech in the camp, he drew a map of Spain in the sand. Inside the outline he sketched a firing squad pointing their rifles at a group of civilians. No refugee misunderstood the man's meaning.

Although the Chamber of Deputies last week moved to appropriate funds to provide meagre board and care for the refugees, the chances are that France in the end will not be out one sou. The daily $185,000 bill can be met for a long time by expropriating the treasures the Loyalists deposited and shipped to France months ago. General Franco would like the money himself. He has hinted that he thought the refugees' care was not his baby. Rebel Spain has, in fact, made the refugee problem a bargaining point with the French Government. Furthermore, it is not likely that the dictator is any more eager to have back almost a half-million militant Republicans than they are to return to his dictatorship. General Franco's Catalan border was closed last week.

Meanwhile the French Government tried to get rid of some of the refugees elsewhere, but with little success. The U. S. offered to take just 352, the unfilled portion of the 1939 quota for Spanish immigrants. South American countries wanted only Basque farmers. Soviet Russia invited only a few big Loyalist leaders to make their homes there. Mexico was willing to receive some, provided they promised to keep out of politics.

Stuck with the refugees, French authorities adopted methods calculated to help "persuade" them that they would be better off almost anywhere else. Typical rations were one loaf of bread daily for six men, a sack of rice for 400 men. Sanitation has been nonexistent. Open latrines have been dug in the camp sand and all modesty about nature's functions has long ago disappeared.

The largest camps are situated on a treeless sandy beach just north of the Spanish border near Argeles-sur-Mer and St. Cyprien. They are enclosed by barbed wire, guarded every 20 feet by a Senegalese soldier. Inside the wire the camps are like some fantastically huge hobo jungle. Only a few refugees have roofs over their heads; the great majority dig holes in the sand and cover themselves with dirty sheets, blankets or coats they managed to carry out with them. Many sleep in the open, rain or shine. Icy sea winds blow the sand continually. Most of the refugees have developed conjunctivitis. Fuel in the large camps is scarce. Cooking is done exclusively in tin cans. At one camp men and women at first stood in line all day waiting to get a little water from a small faucet. At another the only water available--and it is brackish--is obtained from pumps driven into the sand. All the water is bad and it is estimated that 60% of the refugees--or 250,000--have dysentery.

The refugees have been classified as 220,000 militiamen, 40,000 able-bodied civilian men, 10,000 wounded, 180,000 women and children. Hospital facilities are limited and primitive. Many men with weeks-old wounds covered by filthy dressings are still unattended. Several hospital ships serve the more seriously wounded and a few of the sick have been transferred to the interior. The refugees have become a danger to the general health of adjacent communities. Families are still separated and rare is the man or woman who is not ceaselessly looking for kin. On one day a local French newspaper published gratis ten columns of refugee "personals." Typical insert: "Jose Manuel Garcia begs for news of his wife Lena, last heard of on 1st February at Puigcerda." Marseille gangsters, always in need of women for the white-slave trade which supplies Africa and South American countries with prostitutes, were reported circulating in the camps looking for new personnel.

No newsmen could get into the camps last week, but the story of the Spanish refugees' misfortunes began to reach the world. A horrified Parliamentary commission of French Leftists investigating conditions condemned the refugees' treatment, accused the guards of brutality. As a result of criticism, some efforts at improvement have recently been made. In the British House of Lords, Lord Faringdon asked that Britain cooperate with the French at once to end needless suffering. According to Lord Faringdon the refugee death rate was high.

There were two British views on the French treatment of the refugees. The London Times described the tragic conditions, but believed that the French were doing their best with an unprecedented problem. A Leftist weekly accused the French of a form of mass torture.

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