Office of the Historian

852.00/5465: Telegram

The Counselor of Embassy in Spain (Thurston) to the Secretary of State

Valencia, May 18, 1937—noon.
[Received 3:04 p.m.]

638. The following government was formed and took [office] last night:

(1)
President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Finance, and Economy, Juan Negrín, Socialist.
(2)
Minister of State, José Giral, Left Republican.
(3)
National Defense, Indalecio Prieto, Socialist.
(4)
Justice, Manuel de Irujo, Basque Nationalist.
(5)
Government, Julian Zugazagoitia, Socialist.
(6)
Public Instruction and Health, Jesús Hernandez, Communist.
(7)
Agriculture, Vicente Uribe, Communist.
(8)
Public Works and Communications, Bernardo Giner de Los Rios, National Republican Union.
(9)
Labor and Social Assistance, Jaime Ayguade, Catalan Esquerra.

All the foregoing except Minister of Government now in Bilbao were members of the last Cabinet.

The new government immediately issued a statement containing the following points: that it regards itself as the genuine representative of the political parties and regrets the failure of efforts to incorporate representatives of the syndical organizations; that it obligates itself inflexibly to maintain order in the realm; that it will maintain that close contact with Parliament; and that it will follow the same course in international affairs taken in the preceding Ministry and expresses its emphatic protest against the restrictions imposed upon the rights of the legitimate government by the Non-intervention Agreement.

The new government may be said to imply an advance toward more conservative social policies—despite the greater proportional representation of the Communist Party, for the latter has for some time been advocating a moderate and constructive program of action. Both Negrín and Prieto, perhaps the strongest members of the Cabinet are Socialists of moderate tendencies.

The process by which the C. N. T. was eliminated is involved and will be reported by despatch.87 Fundamentally, however, it may be attributed in part to the Communist Party. There is as yet no indication of the attitude that will be adopted by the C. N. T. and its F. A. I. (and perhaps P. O. U. M.) affiliates. There is some apprehension that a conflict may follow, although perhaps not immediately.

Thurston
  1. Despatch No. 1282, May 19, from the Ambassador in Spain; not printed.↩