Sacred Alliance?

In Madrid last week it was officially reported that Spain had at last concluded an accord with the Vatican and unofficially reported that Generalissimo Francisco Franco had won the right to appoint Spanish bishops (see p. 65). With this feather in its beret, Spain's one party, the Falange Espanola Tradicionalista, which has fought to make the Spanish Catholic Church, not Roman, but Spanish, next day won an even greater victory: success in the long tug of war between Spain's politicians and soldiers.

Last month the soldiers apparently had the politicians sliding on their heels when

El Caudillo reorganized his Government, replacing Falangists with his personal friends (TIME, May 19). Last week he made the following Cabinet changes:

P: Out as Finance Minister went conservative-minded Jose Larraz Lopez. In his place El Caudillo appointed Joaquin Benjumea Burin, who had been Minister of Agriculture and Acting Minister of Labor.

P: In as Minister of Agriculture went 37-year-old Miguel Primo de Rivera, only living brother of the Falange's founder and No. 1 martyr.

P: Into the Ministry of Labor went 30-year-old Jose Antonio Giron de Velasco, an earnest devotee of the cult of violence, who learned his trade in the toughest center of the pre-civil-war Falange, Valladolid.

P: To be Secretary General of the Falange, with Cabinet rank, the Generalissimo named Jose Arrese Magraz, 36, another oldtime Falangist street fighter. Arrese became the first man to hold the secretary generalship since March 1940, when Franco ousted General Munoz Grande.

Beneficiary of this shake-up was the Primo de Rivera clan, the royal family of the Falange. Falangist Arrese married a cousin of Founder Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera. But the big gainer was Foreign Minister Ramon Serrano Suoer, who as head of the Falange's Junta Politico, outranks Secretary General Arrese. Just how much Serrano and the Falange had gained was made clear in another decree removing the division of press and propaganda from the Ministry of Government and placing it in the hands of the Falange.

There were many guesses as to why Generalissimo Franco had thrown his weight with the Falange. One guess was that he was jockeying with France for favor with Germany; object: French Morocco. Another was that Franco had made changes long deferred while he dickered with the U.S. for food. Best guess was that he was simply strengthening his Government, replacing conservative civilians with both Falangists and Army men. The Army appointments of last month remained. Supporting this guess was a proposal in Arriba, Falangist mouthpiece: "The Falange hails the Army today and comes forward to propose, honorably, frankly and irrevocably, a firm and sacred alliance for Spain."

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