Spain's Liberalism `Make Believe' Aranguren Says; Denounces Franco

The belief that General Franco's Spain is growing more liberal is just a "kind of make-believe," Jose Luis Aranguren, former professor of Philosophy and Letters at the University of Madrid, said last night.

Aranguren, banned from teaching in Spanish universities for the rest of his life after taking part in a student demonstration last year, softly accused Franco's regime of trying to silence both him and the students he led.

"The protest was only the apparent reason for my dismissal," he told a questioner from his Burr Hall audience. "The real reason was my activity from my University chair, my articles. They just waited until the right moment."

Not until Franco's death, he suggested will Spain see significant political change. "Perhaps the monarchy that succeeds him will be clever enough to open the gates to a liberal, democratic regime," he said. "I can only hope that the change will be made without violence."

Aranguran predicted that Spanish students will continue to defy the government even if they cannot demonstrate. Many are now forming underground organizations, he said, rather than sending representatives to the government-sponsored Student Alliance.

"I doubt that I myself will ever return to the University," he added. But he is free to return to Spain--and devoted most of his speech to what his role must be there.

"It is almost impossible to be both a political citizen and a moral man," he said. "But Spain has found the worse solution--to suppress both. To renounce politics is to accept the Establishment and become a passive citizen. To renounce ethics is to lose respect for one's own human dignity. Somehow we must reassert these things together."

Aranguren said after his speech that he is determined to stay in contact with his former students. "They are forlorn, these students, and need support," he said. "They ought to hear a voice from outside."