852.00/5992: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 13—4:36 p.m.]
972. Our 951, July 10, 2 p.m. The international control on the French frontier was suspended at noon today.
In conversation with an official at the Foreign Office we were told that Eden is not hopeful over the possibilities of finding a solution to the present impasse. He is trying to make progress on the question of the withdrawal of volunteers but the Foreign Office here believes that nothing can be accomplished in this field. The Italian Government will not wish to order the return of the 60,000 Italians now fighting for Franco.
The official with whom we spoke said that the situation seemed to be drifting along from bad to worse; that, with no control either at sea or on the frontiers, nonintervention becomes a farce and that everything appears to point toward increasing Italian intervention in Spain which will oblige the French Government to open its frontier and to allow the Valencia Government to purchase freely supplies in France.