852.00/7081
The Ambassador in Spain (Bowers), Then in France, to the Secretary of State
[Received December 15.]
Sir: In view of the reports to the Department from Valencia and Barcelona of popular dissatisfaction with the allegedly increasing power of the communists in the Government, I have the honor to make the following observations:
The entire Fascist propaganda rests on the pretension that the fight of the Spanish insurgents and the Italian and German allies is to overthrow a communist regime in Spain which does not and never has [Page 460] existed. I have heard this echoed by the supporters of General Franco among the representatives of American business in Spain. I have cross-examined these as to the basis of their claim that the communists are taking more and more power and without eliciting anything that convinces me that there is any occasion for alarm.
It is because events in Spain recently convince me to the contrary that I consider it my duty to call attention to the facts.
The Government is made up of representatives of all the parties of the Frente Popular, including the communists. The latter have in the Cortes, or had at the beginning of the war, and they certainly have no more now, 17 out of more than 400 members.
They have in the Ministry two members holding posts that are practically inoperative during the war.
The two most important posts during the war are those of Minister of National Defense and Minister of Gobernación who has control of the police and is charged with the preservation of internal order.
Neither of these posts is in possession of the Communists.
The Minister of National Defense is Sr. Prieto who notoriously is hostile to communism, as well as syndicalism and anarchism.
The Minister of Gobernación is Sr. Zugazagoitia who is a lieutenant of Sr. Prieto and stands for the same policies and principles.
I do not understand that a single one of the commanding Generals of the Army is a communist or has any sympathy with communism for Spain.
II
The basis of the claim that the Communists have increased their power within the last few months is that their resignation from the former Government forced the resignation of the Largo Caballero Ministry; and their refusal to pledge support to a new Government headed by Largo Caballero forced his retirement from the Government entirely.
The hostility of the Communists to Largo Caballero is notoriously due to the latter’s persistent partiality for the syndicalists and anarchists whose excesses and outrages, particularly in the first months of the war, made for indiscipline, the lack of cooperation and coordination. It must be borne in mind that for four years Largo Caballero’s extremism has demanded a “dictatorship of the proletariat”, and that he has been feared by all the Republicans and all the friends of democracy in Spain as we understand democracy. Nothing could be more absurd than for moderates to complain over the displacement from the Government of the outstanding apostle of extremism and of a “dictatorship of the proletariat”.
Even before the War Azaña quarreled violently with Caballero because of his extreme views and policies. And for a year before the [Page 461] war the quarrel of Caballero and Prieto was an historic feud, and because of Caballero’s extreme views.
There is not a scintilla of doubt that Caballero’s removal was dictated by the moderate Republican and Socialist as well as the Communist party.
III
It impresses me as remarkable that just at the time we are hearing so much about the growing power of the Communists and their increasing domination of the Government, the Communists themselves were so dissatisfied with their position that they actually called a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Communist party in Valencia to decide whether they would continue to support the Negrín Government. This conference met on November 12th. In commenting on the significance of the conference, Herbert L. Matthews of the New York Times, writing from the front, said:
“As frequently stated in these despatches the political trend in Spain since the war started has been away from extreme radicalism toward moderate republicanism. Within the Popular Front the swing has been toward the Right. Ever since the formation of Premier Juan Negrín’s government in May the drift has been further and further toward what would be called the Left Center in the Government of France.”
Regardless of the propaganda I know this to be the case.
In commenting on the conference in reporting its action, Mr. Matthews says:
“It was inevitable that the Communists should not fully concur in the policies of men like President Manuel Azaña, Premier Juan Negrín, Indalecio Prieto, and José Giral, Minister of Foreign Affairs, who have always been moderate republicans standing for democracy on capitalistic grounds.”
The conference decided that the imperative demand of the hour is the unity of all forces making common cause against the Fascists.
This is all the more significant because while the Communists were meeting in Valencia to determine whether they would continue to support the Negrín Government, President Azaña, with Negrín, Prieto and Giral at his side, was in Madrid making the speech reiterating his well-known determination that the democratic Republic, and that alone, must be the outcome of a loyalist victory. He was aiming directly at communism when he said:
“We have again a Republic. A Republic with its three colors. And nothing more. And while the Republic is presided over by a democrat and a republican there will be no other thing in the Republic.”
Thus it is obvious that at the very hour the communists were in conference to determine whether they would continue to support the [Page 462] Government, Azaña, with Negrín, Prieto and Giral and General Miaja at his side, was serving notice that there would be no surrender to communism.
I am, in view of all these facts, unable to find any justification for the reports about the “increasing power over the Government of the communists”.
Respectfully yours,