852.00/6176: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in Spain (Thurston) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2 p.m.]
732. A communiqué from the Ministry of National Defense, reviving the Leipzig incident, quotes an extensive statement alleged to have been obtained from members of the crew of that vessel designed to show that no attack was made upon it—but that extensive preparations had been made, in connivance it is insinuated with Italian and rebel naval officials, for the physical simulation of an attack using largely unloaded torpedoes. In view of the danger even this plan was abandoned in favor of a mere assertion that the attack had occurred.
A second communiqué from the Ministry asserts that the rebel aviation service apprised by its espionage service that two Spanish ships bearing very important cargoes were due to arrive at a Spanish port yesterday went in search of them and by mistake bombed “two foreign vessels, one of them English”.
[Page 372]A third communiqué amplifies earlier reports of alleged losses in rebel ranks at Toledo. Previous reports have claimed that similar uprisings occurred at Malaga and Granada.