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Resplendent in the white uniform of the commander in chief of the Spanish air force, pudgy Generalissimo Francisco Franco set off fortnight ago on a tour of West Africa and the Canary Islands. In Morocco he watched heavily robed native dancers, graciously accepted from Moroccan notables the traditional gift of two camels. At Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canaries, the generalissimo gave an encouraging speech to officers of the local Spanish garrison, told them that the world was beginning to recognize the "reality" of Spain's cause.

At Lake Success last week there were signs that Franco was at least partly right. Joined by the Philippine Republic, seven Latin American nations proposed that the U.N. withdraw a 1946 General Assembly resolution which urged U.N. members to withdraw their senior diplomats from Spain (though not to discontinue all diplomatic relations) and prohibited international agencies affiliated with the U.N. from inviting Spanish representatives to their meetings.

Senator John Sparkman of Alabama, a U.S. delegate to the Assembly, promptly announced that the U.S. would support the new Latin American proposal. Although the U.S. had originally voted for the 1946 ban, the State Department now felt that: 1) the ban had failed since 17 U.N. members, most of them Latin American states, were still exchanging ambassadors or ministers with Spain; 2) the ban was useless because there was no visible alternative to the Franco regime in Spain; 3) Spain was a part of Western Europe and should not be permanently isolated.

The new resolution brought a protest from Uruguayan delegate Enrique Rodriguez Fabregat. Said Fabregat, "Nothing has changed in Spain . . . The same totalitarian regime still exists." It was also opposed by the U.S.S.R. and its satellites. But with the support of the U.S., Canada, Arab nations and most Latin American countries, the move to recognize the "reality" of the Spanish situation seemed sure to pass both the U.N. Special Political Committee and the General Assembly.

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