852.00/4179
The Ambassador in Spain (Bowers), Then in France, to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received December 24.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that the civil war which was to have been finished in “four days—five at the utmost” is now in its fifth month and with no indication of an early end. In August I gave as my opinion, based on a three year study of Spanish political sentiment and Spanish character, that the great majority of the Spanish people were against the rebellion. That opinion, not shared by many of my colleagues, has, after almost five months, been completely vindicated by events.
I predicted in August the prolongation of the struggle, basing my opinion on the conviction that the Spanish masses, constituting 97 per cent of the people, would fight to the finish for the preservation of a governmental system which for the first time in centuries has done something for them. And so it is.
I also reported to the Department in August that were the rebels dependent entirely on Spaniards for their army they would suffer a speedy defeat. That has been clearly shown in the record. They have in their army thousands of the mercenaries of the Foreign Legion from Africa, thousands of the Moors, and as early as August and September they had hundreds of Italian and German army officers as aviators and tank operators.
In other words, the greater part, and the only very effective fighting part, of Franco’s army has been composed of foreigners, not Spaniards.
Now it is a safe surmise that all the Spaniards in sympathy with the rebellion entered the armies of Franco and Mola very early in the war. This means that the rebels have no reservoir of Spanish man power on which to draw. And this means that Franco cannot possibly win without open military support on a large scale from Hitler and Mussolini.
[Page 601]The trained Moorish troops brought over and put always in the front of the fighting have suffered dreadful losses, and a war correspondent with the rebel army continuously from the beginning and just back from the front for a few days, tells me that fully fifty per cent of these have been killed. I understand that it is impossible to draw further on the trained Moorish troops in Africa. The fact that the Moors brought over recently are untrained and are the Riffs, the wild men from the hinterland, bears out this supposition. Their use in the war cannot but increase the savagery of the fight. But it remains to be seen if these tribesmen, untrained in the methods of civilized warfare, can be used as effectively in battle as the professional Moorish soldiers.
I have heard from war correspondents from the front and with the rebel army that the Moors are resenting the policy of making them bear the brunt of the battle, resulting in appalling losses. From Gibraltar comes the report this week that fifty Moors have deserted from the army in that section within the week.
I have sketched the situation affecting Franco’s army because it offers a plausible explanation for the throwing off of all pretence of a disguise by Germany and Italy.
It is now clear, undenied, that five thousand German soldiers, not “volunteers” but soldiers, have been disembarked at Cadiz from an Italian ship, and these are now actually on the Madrid front. This flagrant and defiant violation of the Nonintervention Pact was so brazen that Eden was compelled this week to admit to the House of Commons that these German soldiers have arrived. I believe he called them “volunteers” but the Department can form its own conclusion whether five thousand German army men could go to Spain on their own volition and without being ordered there by the German Government.
John Whittaker, war correspondent, and Miss Davis of the Chicago News, who were in Salamanca Sunday and who called on me Monday evening, agree that in Salamanca it was scarcely possible to see a Spanish soldier or officer, because lost in the crowd of Germans. They saw great numbers of young soldiers, all blonde, with Germanic features, walking about the streets with the “goose-step” fairly screaming for recognition. I have absolute confidence in Whittaker’s reports since he has been with Franco’s or Mola’s armies from the beginning and is a partisan of the rebels. He tells me that on the Madrid front, after a particularly disastrous day for the rebels, he had dinner with a German officer who admitted himself depressed and said that he was going on to Seville that night to send word to Berlin that unless strong German reenf orcements were sent speedily, the rebels’ cause was lost. These five thousand German soldiers came within ten days.
[Page 602]Since the arrival of the five thousand German soldiers, an Italian ship has disembarked in Spain two thousand five hundred Italian soldiers.
These, like the Germans, as the Department knows better than I, could not have come had they not been actually sent by the Italian Government.
The natural and inevitable culmination of this policy on the part of Germany and Italy now appears. La Petite Gironde of Bordeaux, under a Paris date line, signed G. R. T., states that a report from Turin on December 4th says that preparations are under way in Italy to send an army of 60,000 Italian soldiers to reenforce Franco’s failing forces. It is announced that Mussolini has conferred with six Generals, including Generals Montagna and Brandimarte, the latter of whom left for Spain on December 2nd. The first contingent of these, composed of 2,700, is said to be prepared for early departure to Majorca and is to be the “shock troops” which will attempt a landing in Catalonia on January 2nd. This may be confused with the 2,500 Italian soldiers who recently landed in the south of Spain.
In this connection, the Government in Valencia learns that an expeditionary force, which has been assembled in Majorca, will attempt a landing on the Spanish coast, convoyed by German and Italian ships and air fleets.
This at any other time in the world’s history would mean a European war.
Meanwhile the Government in Moscow has accepted the proposal of England and France, but nothing has been heard from Germany, Italy or Portugal.
II
Augmenting the Government forces are many actual volunteers whose Governments have nothing whatever to do with their presence here. While impossible to get accurate information on the number of these, the highest estimate I have heard is at 3,000. These are Frenchmen who have crossed the border in small groups and enlisted, Italians who have been exiled from Italy by Fascism, Germans who have been driven from Germany by Hitler, Belgians, some British and a very few Americans. These are actual volunteers. They are actuated by different motives. Among them are communists, liberals, democrats, and many are young men seeking adventure or moved by youth’s generous sympathy for the peasantry of Spain. Quite a good proportion of these have seen service in the World War, others have been trained as soldiers in the armies of their countries.
These are put into the International Brigade, top-notch fighters, who hold the front line in Madrid. There is one division composed entirely of Italian anti-Fascists who call themselves the Division of Garibaldi.
[Page 603]III
This accounts for all the foreigners fighting in Spain, with the exception of the Russians who require special treatment, because of the extravagant and absurd exaggeration of their numerical strength. The utter absence of any semblance of neutrality and the complete loss of judgment, even on the part of some of my colleagues, are illustrated in the fact that my British colleague solemnly assured me this week that there are no Spaniards in the defending army at Madrid. Since there are in the neighborhood of 30,000 or more soldiers defending Madrid his assertion that all are Russians answers itself. If with every facility it was impossible to slip in 5,000 Germans, it would be ridiculous to assume that the Russians have brought over 30,000 without any one knowing where they entered or how.
No doubt there are Russians fighting in the ranks of the loyalist armies, but an intensive questioning of a dozen war correspondents with the two armies for four months has failed to bring forth an opinion from any one of them that there have been many Russians. Sometime ago there is no doubt that some Russian officers, and one of high rank, went to Madrid and are now associated with the Government army. Some of these are employed in drilling and training raw recruits, some are actually in charge of companies in the field, and some Russian officers of high rank appear to be serving as advisers and strategists.
Now that Russian war material is coming in as rapidly as German and Italian, and now that the Italian and German Governments have thrown off all disguise and have sent thousands of soldiers, it will astonish me if Russia does not follow suit if it is at all practical. But when they come, if they come in large numbers, it would be impossible for them to come all the way from Russia without all the world knowing it.
IV
Thus Spain may become the mere battlefield for a European conflict. The purported plan of England and France to propose an armistice and a plebiscite to determine whether the Spanish people wish to retain the Government overwhelmingly elected last February, or prefer to accept a Fascist or military dictatorship, seems impracticable considering the conditions here. I am thoroughly convinced that an honest election, with every man and woman voting an individual preference, would result precisely as before, if indeed there would not be an increased Left majority. But under existing conditions such an election would now be utterly impossible.
Who would supervise and run it? The League of Nations? The League which has been respected by Spain, perhaps more than by any other European country, has completely lost the confidence or respect [Page 604] of the Government here. It has failed to enforce those articles of the Covenant on which the Spanish Government feels it had a right to rely. Every move of the Non-intervention Committee has been to serve the rebel cause. I am informed by a close friend of Del Vayo, Minister of State, that he has only contempt for the League, knows that nothing can be expected from it, and only appeals to it because it offers an opportunity to put the Government’s position before the world.
I am quite sure that the Franco-British plan would be rejected by the Government unless every foreign soldier be removed and the supervision of the election be left entirely with the Spanish people acting through their constitutionally elected officials. In view of the fact that they but recently had an election supervised entirely by the Rights, the Government probably would refuse a demand from other nations that they have another now.
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VI
Thus the wisdom of the Department in taking a position of absolute neutrality and non-interference in this wretched war was never clearer. We were wise in not participating in the various non-neutral schemes sponsored by the Diplomatic Corps here which for the most part has acted on the theory from the beginning that it is accredited to Franco. In every instance of an attempt at interference, from which we held aloof, the Corps not only failed but with a humiliating but not undeserved rebuke. There have been no meetings of the Corps now for weeks.
We have concentrated entirely on the protection of Americans. We have thus far retained the respect and confidence of the Government, and we have done absolutely nothing to justify the slightest complaint from the rebels. We have done so by attending strictly to our own business.
Efforts have been made repeatedly to draw us into some concerted action. I find indications of another attempt intended today. In Bilbao two consuls, or acting consuls, were caught red-handed sending military information under the protection of their office to the rebel headquarters at Salamanca. These men were spies and were shot. As a result I suspect that every consulate in Bilbao is looked upon as an active or potential enemy. It appears that some restrictions on the rights of the consulates have been imposed. The Consul of Poland, a Spanish lawyer of Bilbao, saw me today. A moment’s conversation revealed that he is an enemy of the Government. He tried to persuade me that in a civil war there is no such thing as a spy and that the Government had no right to take action against the Austrian, who was [Page 605] sending descriptions of the military defences of the city of Salamanca, and who was a spy in the World War.
The Spanish-Pole Consul evidently came to try to get us to join in protests to the Government in Bilbao against restrictions imposed. He was going to see the Argentine Ambassador, as Dean of the Corps, apparently to ask him to take action in behalf of the Corps or to call a meeting for the purpose. Unless instructed by the Department to the contrary, I shall not attend any such meeting or join in any such representations. Abnormal conditions affecting the consular corps in Bilbao have been created by the outrageous conduct of at least two of the Consuls. We are not opening our Consulate there, and when Consul Chapman makes his periodic visits his activities will be strictly confined to looking after the interests of Americans, and beyond that absolutely nothing.
Respectfully yours,