852.2221/928: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 1:35 p.m.]
907. Your 360, June 9, 6 p.m. Louis Fischer, who has just returned from Moscow, called on me yesterday. In spite of Mr. Fischer’s objections I insisted on having Mr. Barnes62 present during the conversation.
Mr. Fischer in the presence of us both denied that he had had any connection whatsoever with recruiting in the United States or anything to do with paying passages for Americans to Spain. He denied that he had ever said to Mr. Edgar Mowrer and Mr. John Whitaker or anyone else (see my 833 May 26, 1 [7] p.m.) that he had $150,000 to use in shipping Americans to Spain but would not use any of it for the return of American wounded to the United States. He alleged that what he had said was that he could get all the money necessary from Negrín to pay passages of American wounded from Paris to the United States. He stated that he could still get from Negrín all the money necessary to pay for the shipment of American wounded from Paris to the United States. He was not so categoric in his statement with regard to the payment of railroad fare from Perpignan to Paris and said that he thought the care of the wounded while in France and in transit could and should be handled by contributions from the American colony in Paris and other sources. Mr. Fischer then promised to get in touch at once with the officials in Paris of the Central Sanitaire, 38 Rue Chateau Dun, and to report to Mr. Barnes yesterday afternoon the result of his conversation. We have not yet heard anything from Mr. Fischer and have been unable to reach any responsible official at the Central Sanitaire.
… I feel therefore that there should be no relaxation in the efforts of the Department to obtain money from the Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and from the Medical Bureau and North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy. In any event considerable sums will be needed for the care of wounded while in France.
I shall keep the Department informed with regard to any further conversations that Fischer may have with members of the Embassy.
I am getting in touch with Katz and Rhodes with a view to holding them to the Department’s understanding of the action that has already been taken by the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and the Medical Bureau and North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy.
- Maynard B. Barnes, First Secretary of Embassy in France.↩