852.00/6711: Telegram
The Chargé in Italy (Reed) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 18—4 p.m.]
445. My telegram No. 443, October 17, noon.79 The semi-official Informazione Diplomattica announced today that there are at present 40,000 Italian volunteers in Spain, including the auxiliary services, whereas Valencia volunteers are far more numerous.
If the previous reliable estimates of approximately 60,000 Italian troops serving in the Nationalist armies were correct, the publication of this announcement would apparently indicate recent repatriation of large numbers of Italians from Spain.
The British Ambassador, who saw Count Ciano just before Saturday’s meeting of the London Non-intervention Committee, stated that he found the Foreign Minister most anxious of finding a solution and willing to accept very strong measures of control provided agreement on the other two questions could be secured. The Italians insist, however, that an equal number of volunteers be withdrawn from each side rather than proportionally according to the numbers serving in each army. Lord Perth80 said that the French Government attached considerable importance to a proportional withdrawal as Paris seemed to believe that more foreigners were serving with the Nationalist Army than with the Valencia forces and that an equal withdrawal would be definitely advantageous to Franco. Either solution, he added, would be acceptable to the British Government.
A Foreign Office official today stressed the unfortunate impression which Eden’s Llandudno speech81 had created in Italian official circles and said that such an attitude on the part of the British Government makes a solution more difficult. The Italians seem, however, inclined to restrained optimism and to consider that the Italian offer of a partial withdrawal of volunteers offers a real possibility for agreement although it is still feared that Soviets will continue to block accord.
[Page 428]The impression prevails here that from a military point of view an agreement with respect to volunteers is feasible particularly since it is understood that Franco attaches more importance to a recognition of his belligerent status than to continued foreign reenforcements.