Letter to The Editor - more to fear of an Australian republic going communist than of our present Christian monarchy going fascist

to THE AGE
     Both the current Spanish crisis (‘Civil war wounds reopened as sides fire up over Catalonia’, 16/10) and ongoing controversy over the events in Australia in 1975 (‘Did Britain have a role in Dismissal?’) are similar in that, behind argumentation about constitutional matters, two different and mutually hostile visions of the political order are embattled.
     Historian Jenny Hocking appears to be conducting her research in order to fire up anti-British and pro-republic sentiment. Both in 1936 and today Catalonian separatism has been used to try to move Spain away from Christian monarchy towards secular and atheistic republicanism. This is accompanied by misrepresentation (‘Franco’s Falange’):  Franco was a Catholic patriot, not a fascist, and successfully kept both the Falange and Hitler at arm’s length after the 1939 Nationalist victory. He bequeathed to Spain the present unifying monarchy.
     History shows that we have much more to fear of an Australian republic going communist than of our present Christian monarchy going fascist.
     NJ, Belgrave, Vic