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soain Braces. lor More Trouble
"SHIPPING CHAOS"
PROSPECT
For over
36
years - from the
overtluów of lhe Spanish Re–
public by Generalissimo Fran–
cisco Franco in
1939 -
opponents of
El Caudillo,
as
Franco is called, have been pre–
dícting the imminent downfall
ofhis aulhoritarian regime.
Now, at long last, !he pre–
diction appears to be rapidly
headíng toward fulfillment.
Plagued by a growing tide of
interna! violence and increasiog
intemationaJ isolation, WestCtn
Europe's Jast remaining author–
itarian regime may be fast
drawing to a violeot close.
Stonn
of Protest
lo late September, !he Span–
ish govemment, ignoring pleas
for clemency from all quarters
of Westem Europe, execuled
five terrorists convicted of
slaying Spanisb polic:emen. Two
of the five were members of the
Basque separatist movcment
Basque Natlon and Liberty
(ETA) and the others belonged
to
th~
smaller, Maoist-oriented
Patriotic Anti-Fascist Revolu–
tionary Fronl
(FRAP).
lnside Spain, the executions
touched off a series of terrorist–
reprisal
killings
of policemen
and a two-day general strike in
tbe four northem Basque prov–
inces. But
to
the Spanisb gov–
emmeot's surprisc and chagrín,
!he ramifications of !he execu–
tions extended far beyond the
nation's borders.
Swedisb Prime Mlnister Olof
Palme, in !he strongest denun–
ciation, labeUed the Franco re–
gime a group of "bloody
murderers." Italian Christian
Democra1 Paolo Cabras
branded tbe Madrid govern–
ment "a contiouing· curse
against·aU free men."
~d
Pope
Paul
VI
assailed tbe executions
as "murderous repressjon'"
-es-–
pecia1Iy severe language for tbe
Vatican.
lo
all,
16
Europeao govern–
ments recalled tbeir ambassa–
dors from Madrid in protest.
Spanisb embassies and offices
were looted and burned in sev–
era! Europeao capitals. Mex–
ico's Presiden! Luis Echeverria
called upon !he United Nations
to expel Spain and "speed up
Franco's
fall.~
The European Economic
Community (EEC) dealt Spain
what was perbaps the hardest
b!Qw of all by cutting off oego–
tiations on
a
oew free-trade
agreement. Spanisb foreign pol–
icy ha<\ receotly been working
for closer
links,
bolh economic
and
otherwise, between Spain
and !he West Europeao democ–
racies.
Washington
Mum
TP.•
United States remained
notably sileot amid tbe
storm
of
anti-Franco protest. Negotiat–
ing witb Spain for the renewal
of the agreement giving the
U.S. rights to four military
bases in Spain, Washington
cbose only to express regret at
"the cycle ofviolence that led to
this tragic outcome." Witb
NATO's
southem
ftank
alreády
weakened by düliculties in Por–
tugal, Greece, and Turkey,
Spanisb bases are regarded as
WEEK ENOING NOVBMBER
t,
197S
essential to tbe U.S.-NATO
presence in !he
~editerraoean.
Tbe unusuaUy intense out–
burst of condemnation from the
govemments of Westem Eu–
rope was not a reaction to tl!:e
executions
per se.
Tbe use of tbe
death penalty against clearly
guilty political murderers
is
oot
generaUy objectiooable lo most
Europeans. The protests were
dírected in most · cases against
the
method of tria/
-
the hasty,
closcd-door, military tribunal
which has become increasingly
commoo in Spaín, beyond
which lhere is no appeal
Nevertheless, political ana–
lysts feel the .trials and execu–
tions acted merely as
a
trigger,
releasing long pent-up resenl–
ment and animosity for the
Franco govemment. Britain's
Foreign Secretary James Cal–
laghan obse.rved that the whole
problem was "broughi about
not just by a single act of bruta–
lity, but by injustices over a
generation or more.
10
Many
West Europeans have not for–
gotten lhat Franco's forces in
the Spanish Civil
\l(ar . -
the
testing ground for World War
11
- were supported by the Nazis
and fascists whicb later bruta–
Iízed !he entire Continenl.
Replying on national televi–
sion, Spain's Prime Minister
Carlos
Arias
Navarro angrily
rejected the foreign có1icism,
calling it
bypocritica~
false, un–
jusi, and an unwarranted inter–
ference in Spaio's interna!
affairs.
Spain, be asserted. does
not desire intemational isola–
tion, but oeither does it frighten
her.
Tbe aggrcssive govemment
line was ecboed by General
Franco in a three-minute, emo–
(Continued on
pagé 4,
col.
1)
FANNED BY INFLATION
LONDON: Double-dígit in- cargo cates in view of slackened
llatioo
is
now causing concern world trade.
among free world shipping
oper-
Mr. F. B. Bolton, presiden! of
ators.
lt's
not so much the runa- !he General "Council of British
way inflatioo
they
are suffering Sbipping, recently stated tbat
as it is ihe low rate of inftation on certain routes Soviet cargo
in communist nations. ·
rates ruo an average of
20%
to
Since most sbippiog lines be-
30%
lower !han !he tariffs fixed
long 1o rate-agreement cartels' by British liners. In sorne cases
tbat fix prices at uniform rates . tbe rates are as
.~uch
as
SO%
,
.
. inft . h · below the compe1111oo.
10r g.ven routes,
atton . as
"R d
· , ·
do bt
bilherto bad.
~ttle
real effect
~o
edly
;~~g~~P::OO:~ ~~gre~ ~
!he. competJtJoo of one ship well. But it's a' traditiooal
aga1nst ano!"er because a
n~w
1'1\ethod used by shipping own–
geotlemen- s agreement m- ers to break into otherwise
~reased ev~ryone's
prices
peri~-"
closed tradíng areas and is not
1cally. _Shippers operatmg . m solely the answer to !he Soviet
couotr1es not expet1encmg success.
double-digit inftation went
Whatever the reasons, Mr.
along with price rises because Bolton feels pessimistic as 10 !he
this incrtased their profits.
Iong-term effects.
Now tbeie cozy arrangements
The collapse of rate-fixing
are in danger because of !he conferences due lo shipping
Iesser rate of inJiation in tlle lines pulling out to be free to
communist world.
undercut eacb other's prices and
!ron Curtain shipping aulhor- compete with !he Soviets coul_d
ities consisleotly refused
to
join
r~ult,
be thioks, m a chaobc
free world price-cootrolling as- pTice free-for-all.
.
.
sociations, and, hence, because
_ün a sbort-term basJS
this
they .wereo't beset with runaway rru$hl sc:em good - the effecl
domestic inllation aod tbe same bemg to lower cargo
ral~
and
comm~cial
profit-making pres- passenger fares :- but history
sures as free-world shipping, leaches
~al
the likely next stcp
their rates have remairied reJa- 1s for
natJ_o~
lo take protecuve
.
.
.
repnsals, msiStmg that domestiC
tJvely stable. Effecbvely_ thts <;argos be can:ied
in
oatiooally
means they are now senously owned ships or country-of-ori–
u.ndercuttmgotber sQ.ippmg line gin ships and ultimately, 10
a
rates
~nd,
conse9uently, are greater or lesser extent, this
captunng a growmg share of could lead to trade restrictions
world cargo movements.
and a form of trade war.
The communist sucoess has
Tbe fact tliat aU bu·l 1wo or
come at !he worst possible mo- tbree major shipping lines have
men1 for its free-world com-.
rec~ntly
pulled out of tbe
petitioo. Sbip owners are Trans-Pacific Freighl Confer–
reeling under tbree financia! · ence and are operating
in
a
harnmer blows - tbe coUapse of "free-for-all" manner indicates
the supertanker market, a spec- lha1 Mr. Bolton koows what
tacular increase in bunkerage he's talking about.
charges, and !he downtum in
-
Jo/m
D.
Stettaford
Arab Arms lndustry
Beginning toTake Shape
import perfected weapons tech–
nology from the West, ralher
than trying to build a bome–
grown Arab arms ioduslry from
scra1ch.
.
LONDON: The Arab world
is littered with the remains of
weU-intentioned cooperativo ef–
forts wbich have been con–
demned lo paper dreams after
!he usual fanfare aocompanying
tbeir inceplion. One inter–
govemmental effort that is giv–
ing
sign~>'
of . actually
functioning, however, is the
Arab Organi.zatioo for tbe Man–
ufacture of Armameots
(AOMA). set up in May as a
joint venture by Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, the United Arab Emi-
rates, and ·Qatar.
·
AOMA was boro at a meet-
~g
oo May
10
in Cairo with a
capital investment of
S1.04
bil–
lion to develop
arms
and olher
industries. Although it is not
koowo wbere !he factories are
to be established, it
is
assumed
that they
will
eveotually be
fouod for
the
most part in
Egypt. At the head ofAOMA is
a ministerial committee at–
tended by tbe Egyptian war
mioister, the Saudi defeose
minister, and !he armed forces
commanders
or
Qalar and tbe
UAE (United Arab Emirat.ev.
AOMA l'olicy seems to in–
dicatc that its function will be to
President Sadat visited Brit·
ain in June very largely in order
to díscuss !he possibilities ofset–
tiog up assembly lines for Brit–
isb weapons. After Sadat's visit,
it was announced tbat Britain's
three largest aerospace contrac–
lors - British Aircraft Corpora–
tion, Hawker Siddeley, and
Westland - had submitted
studíes for the manufacture in
Egypt ofmissiles, jets, and heli–
copters respectively. Tbe other
items believed to be on the list
for assembly include tbe
Hawker Siddcley Hawk figbter–
trainer, grouod-to-air missiles
(Continued on page 4, coL 3)