852.00/5051
The Ambassador in Spain (Bowers), Then in France, to the Secretary of State
[Received March 31.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that the disclosures of the past week have reduced to utter mockery the pretension that the war in Spain is anything other than a foreign war of the Fascist Powers against the Government of Spain. There are now thousands of the regular Italian army on the Guadalajara front and under the command of Italian Generals, who are the real directing command. With the Italian army are a much smaller number of German soldiers. These, from all accounts, have taken precedence even over the Moors, on whom Franco has formerly depended for his hardest fighting.
The capture of a considerable number of Italians and two Germans, all of whom have been seen and interviewed in their prison by press correspondents, discloses the fact that these Italians are actually in the uniforms of the Italian army. An Italian lieutenant, belonging [Page 254] to a machine gun battalion of a division ostensibly intended for Abyssinia, frankly said that he was receiving sixty lire a day from the Italian Government, and 500 pesetas a month from the Spanish insurgents. He reported that the privates under him are receiving five pesetas a day from the Franco forces, with three deducted for food, and that twenty lire a day are paid their families at home by the Italian Government. One German and one Italian soldier said that they were in Spain “to plant fascism” there. Others said that they had been told they were being sent to Spain to fight the Russians, but all admitted they had seen no Russians.
These Italian prisoners report that they arrived in Spain fully equipped and that they had brought with them from Italy the war material they were using on the Guadalajara front.
Since the day set by agreement with both Italy and Germany for discontinuing the sending of men or war material, it is believed here that more Italian soldiers have been landed at Cadiz on February 28; and there appears no doubt but that German war material, tanks, field guns, machine guns, and ammunition have arrived since the agreement went into effect.
Among my anti-Government colleagues it is commonly said, with evident approval, that the interminable delays in putting the agreement into operation were deliberately designed to give Italy and Germany, particularly the former, full opportunity to rush in enough soldiers to assure victory for Franco. It is understood here that when Mussolini sent in his sixty to eighty thousand soldiers it was with warning to Franco that unless he could win with these the Spanish adventure was over.
The maneuvers of the insurgents and their foreign allies on the Guadalajara front are in striking contrast with those usually, and up to this time exclusively, employed by Franco, and the change is generally ascribed to the conviction that the Italian Generals are in complete command.
Despite the fresh trained armies from abroad, and the great superiority these enjoy in equipment, the sweeping advance of the insurgents on the first day has been checked, and a portion of the Italian army put to rout, with loyalist planes machine-gunning them in their flight; and tanks and machine guns were captured along with the soldiers now imprisoned in Madrid.
However, the feeling that exists among the insurgents, as I personally know from conversation with them here, and from over the line, that it is now or never, together with their superiority in equipment and the presence by the thousands of the veterans of Abyssinia, convinces me that the Government is now facing its supreme test, and that only a miracle can prevent the complete encirclement of Madrid.
[Page 255]II
The agreement for the guarding of the frontier by land and sea, with the Italian and German warships given a monopoly on the Mediterranean coast from Alicante to Barcelona, constitutes another grave menace to the Government. No one has any doubt that under the cover of darkness the navies of Italy and Germany will be used with deadly effect in the shelling of the coast towns. Naturally the insurgents will insist that the shelling is done by insurgent vessels. But no one believes for a moment that this has been true up to the present time. The insurgent Spanish ships have shown ludicrously poor marksmanship for eight months; the shelling of Valencia and Barcelona in the night has shown very superior marksmanship. No one doubts that this has been the work of the Italian ships in the waters of Valencia and Barcelona. This feeling rests not only on the marksmanship but on the fact that the shells show Italian origin. In the light of the past eight months, in view of the fact that through all these months the Italians and Germans have violated their agreements with impunity, and apparently without rebuke, no one, in diplomatic circles or out, with whom I have talked, has the least doubt that loyalist cities on the Mediterranean coast will henceforth be in greater peril than ever from the Italian and German ships operating by night.
III
Nor has the Government at any time been confronted with a greater menace within its own lines from Franco’s “Fifth Column”, and especially from the anarchists and the extreme and corrupt part of the syndicalists. Mr. Thurston has reported the incidents near Valencia. These are the work of the anarchists, believed by the French Ambassador to be in the pay of the insurgents, who until recently were able by their obstructive, disruptive tactics and violence to prevent the creation of a real national army under a central command subject to the orders of the Government. The Government, during the last few weeks, has made astonishing progress toward gaining control, and with remarkable results in the field.
The result has been to uncover the anarchists as traitors to the Government cause and, with the mask off, they are now openly acting as the insurgents would have them act were they actually on the payroll of General Franco. It is too much of a strain on credulity and common sense to believe it possible that these men are such fools as not to know that their conduct plays directly into the hands of the insurgents.
In addition, there is justification for the theory that they are consciously acting behind the lines as a “Fifth Column”, in the records of the past. On the establishment of the Republic, documentary proof was found that many of these, especially in Barcelona, were [Page 256] on the payroll of the monarchy. They were used to create disturbances whenever, for other reasons, the authorities wished to declare martial law. And I was told personally by Francisco Herrera, publisher of El Debate, brother of Angel Herrera, a powerful extreme Rightist, that “if we have the money we can always buy these men”. I assumed that he was speaking from experience.
I am persuaded, therefore, that in the event of an insurgent success on the Guadalajara front, the anarchistic element will attempt to create a state of anarchy by methods of violence within the loyalist territory, the purpose, of course, being so to demoralize the Government territory as to hasten the recognition of Franco, thus eliminating the necessity of subjecting the country by military means.
This element was responsible for the plot to kidnap General Miaja, who has become a thorn in the side of the insurgents because of the demonstration of unexpected strength since the creation of a national army. The facts have not all yet been revealed, but it appears that the disturbers in Madrid, under the leadership of Antonio del Rosal, have introduced their members into both the U. G. T., the socialist union, and the C. N. T., the syndicalist union, with the mission of creating hatred between the two organizations and destroying all hope of a united front against the common foe. The trial of those arrested has not yet been held.
Thus the immediate danger to the Government is threefold:
- 1.
- A supreme military effort, supported by four divisions of the Italian army, some thousands of the German, and all abundantly equipped with the best equipment.
- 2.
- A desperate effort by the anarchists or Franco’s “Fifth Column” to demoralize the defence behind the lines.
- 3.
- The possibility of naval attacks on the Mediterranean coast by the war vessels of Italy and Germany who are given a free hand by England and France in that quarter.
IV
Now that the anti-Government refugees, protected for months in the Embassies and Legations in Madrid, are being evacuated, I have the positive proof in my personal observation here that I have not misinformed the Department in the past regarding the character of these refugees during the last few months. The men of fighting age, released by the Government with the pledge of the nation whose Embassy or Legation they occupied that they would not return to Spain during the war, are coming to Saint-Jean-de-Luz from Marseille or Nice and openly crossing the border to enlist in the insurgent army.
Respectfully yours,