Franklin & Francisco

The plan, Franklin Roosevelt explained last week, was: 1) the U.S. and the other American nations will rehabilitate Spanish art treasures and famous buildings; 2) the U.S. and the others will encourage postwar tourist trade to Spain from the 21 American republics. The price: Dictator Francisco Franco will remain neutral, i.e., not attack Gibraltar as an open ally of the Axis (TIME, Aug. 31).

The reasons: 1) the U.S. needs Spanish tungsten ore and cork (an RFC buying agency, blessed by both the State Department and the Board of Economic Warfare, is now doing business with Franco); 2) the U.S. is being hurt by Spanish Falangist propaganda in the Americas.

The result, if the proposal is ever carried through: post-war tourists will have a happy hunting ground. If they dig around picturesque battlefields long enough, they may find many souvenirs, including the bones of Americans who died fighting Hitler, Mussolini and Franco before World War II officially started.

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