Hispanic Custom

No privilege is more zealously guarded by Latin American nations than the right of asylum in a foreign embassy or legation. In the topsy-turvy politics of South America no statesman can tell from one day to the next when the wheel of political fortune is going to turn violently against him. It is only practical that he should foster the tradition which provides him a soft spot on which to light in the event of an explosion.

When the Spanish Civil War started, Latin American embassies in Spain gave refuge to and probably saved the skins of thousands of Generalissimo Francisco Franco's sympathizers. Moreover, the Latin Americans always demanded (and most of the time got) safe conduct for their refugees to the border. Argentina once threatened to send a battleship to Spain to protect refugees held at the summer embassy in San Sebastian, and Argentine protection allowed Ramon Serrano Suner, Minister of Interior in the present Franco Cabinet, to escape from a Madrid prison to Nationalist territory. Peru at one time protected 360 Nationalists in its

Madrid consulate and Chile had 2,000 in its Embassy. Both got stamping mad when the Loyalists demanded the refugees' surrender.

Three weeks ago the victorious Franco Government refused free departure to 17 Loyalist refugees lodged in the Chilean Embassy in Madrid. Chile, now governed by a Popular Front government, got very wroth, and Argentina, El Salvador, Venezuela, Cuba, Uruguay and Mexico joined in demanding that the Generalissimo respect the old Hispanic custom of the right of asylum. Unhispanic indeed sounded the humane statement of the Chilean Foreign Office on the matter: the right of asylum is not a matter of politics, simply a humanitarian principle to avoid useless reprisals. Last week in Santiago, Chile let it be known that victory was hers in the asylum dispute and that soon the luckless 17 would be on their way to safety outside Spain.

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