Luis
Bolin
was
born in Málaga, Spain
in 1897. Educated at the University of Granada, he was employed as
a journalist in France during the First
World War.
In 1920 Bolin became the
press attaché to the Spanish Embassy in London
in 1920. The following year he joined the information section of the
League of Nations. He later worked for
the right-wing daily newspaper, ABC.
Bolin became active in
politics and on 19th July 1936 he arrange the aircraft that took General
Francisco
Franco, the military
governor of the Canary Islands, to mainland Spain.
Afterwards, Bolin became Franco's press director and during the Spanish
Civil War was responsible for arranging for war correspondents
to make tours of the battle areas.
In February 1938 Bolin
was appointed as head of the Spanish State Tourist Department. He
held the post throughout the Second World War.
His book, Spain, the Vital Years,
was published in 1967. Luis
Bolin died
in 1969.
(1)
Luis
Bolin was a supporter of Miguel
Primo de Rivera. He explained why
in his book, Spain, the Vital Years (1967)
Unlike the national rising against
an even graver situation that set
off civil war in 1936, General Primo de Rivera's move was a classic
coup d'etat, swiftly and ably executed by a man who did not
hesitate to take the entire responsibility on his shoulders. He relied
on the partially expressed support of the Army, though not all its
leaders backed Primo, nor were they with him unflinchingly until the
end.
There
was no opposition from political parties or labour unions. The majority
of the nation resigned itself to a fait accompli and hoped
for the best, or for something sensational, but there were no street
scenes, no riots, no shooting. Objective and far-sighted citizens,
without a stake in the political arena and no possibility of gain
from turbulence and unrest, heaved a sigh of relief and applauded
the coup d'etat, once
its success became evident.
A brief period sufficed
to show that the dictator meant business. Instead
of persecuting his predecessors or making them responsible for the
shortcomings of the regime, Primo de Rivera devoted himself to constructive
work. The murder of two postal employees in a railway van, committed
shortly after his access to power and punished by a Court of Justice
with the extreme rigour of the law, showed that crime was no longer
profitable. Plans for military action in Spanish Morocco were revised
from bottom to top; in less than three years, the entire Protectorate
was pacified and the war was brought to a victorious end.
There were no strikes,
production attained new levels, private enterprise flourished. A network
of roads, properly banked and well-surfaced, spread over the country.
At long last, Spain's valuable hydraulic resources began to be harnessed
and exploited. Work was carried out in harbours and railways, schools
were built, industry and trade registered progress, and national economy
soared. Two exhibitions of an impressive character, held in Seville
and Barcelona in the year 1929, proved that Spain could thrive rapidly
under a system guaranteeing peace, prosperity and the rule of practical
law.
(2)
Luis
Bolin, Spain, the Vital Years (1967)
In 1936-9 Great Britain and other
European and American countries were beginning to think in terms of
the coming world conflict. The fact that Hitler and Mussolini helped
the Spanish Nationalists was a cause of great and perhaps natural
prejudice in those countries, though it should be noted that those
who criticized us for accepting Hitler's help saw nothing strange
in the acceptance of Stalin, who had invaded Poland with Hitler, as
their ally in World War II. When men
are fighting for all that is dear to them they accept help from wherever
it comes. But the loose habit of referring to all authoritarian regimes
other than the Communist as 'Fascist' made it hard for people to appreciate
the vast differences that separate the Spanish Falange from Nazism.
(3)
Luis
Bolin was the Nationalist press chief
in charge of propaganda and censorship during the Spanish
Civil War. Bolin wrote about Guernica
in his memoirs, Spain, the Vital Years (1967)
During the advance on Bilbao, Guernica
became part of the front line. It contained several small factories,
one of them engaged in the manufacture of arms and ammunition. It
was an important road junction and a depot of substantial size for
the massing of reserves on their way to the trenches. The Republicans
in Bilbao needed a sensational story to offset their reverses. They
dispatched Asturian miners to dynamite Guernica and set fire to its
buildings and swore that they had been blown to smithereens by German
bombs. To destroy an entire small town, not hundreds but thousands
of bombs would be required. The resources for such wholesale destruction
are entirely lacking to either side in this war. It should be noted
that the destruction though involving many buildings spared the Guernica
tree and adjoining structure.
Basque separatists took great care not to damage the tree which they
held in special veneration.
(4)
Luis
Bolin, Spain, the Vital Years (1967)
I drove up from Malaga and joined
our troops before they entered Barcelona. No attempt had been made
to defend the city. Its inhabitants were tired of fighting, sick of
their rulers, and hungry for food and peace. There had been the usual
amount of looting and much senseless destruction. Santa Maria del
Mar, a priceless jewel of Gothic art, had been burnt at the outbreak
of war; San Pedro de las Puellas, the earliest Christian monument
in Barcelona, had experienced the same fate. The stench was awful.
Unswept for years, the streets were full of autumn leaves and garbage,
part of the accumulated filth which the Reds bequeathed to every town
that they occupied for any amount of time. Near the port, at the eastern
end of the Ramblas, I saw houses damaged by bombs which had been aimed
at ships anchored in the harbour. Apart from this and from the destruction
wrought upon it by the Reds, Barcelona was unharmed.
Large quantities of food,
rushed up in endless lines of lorries from happier parts of Spain,
were being handed out by smiling, well-scrubbed girls in the blue
uniforms of the Falange. My job was to accommodate the legion of civil
servants, businessmen, and employees, already in Barcelona and eager
to set the city on its feet. Hotels had to be staffed, cleaned up,
and supplied with food and all the necessary requisites. The record
of their personnel had to be investigated, for it would have been
senseless to assign positions of trust to possible devotees of murder,
arson, and loot. To have fought against us was one thing; to be a
criminal was another. The dust at the Ritz, the best hotel in the
town, was inches thick. I told the manager to summon as many char-women
as he could find, for I needed them all. Once they arrived I reviewed
them, complete with brooms, mops and pails. 'Has the day at last arrived
for us to resume scrubbing floors?' one of them asked me. 'It certainly
has,' I replied. 'Thank God for that!' she answered, throwing up her
hands to the skies.
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
