751.52/2–2746: Telegram

The Ambassador in France ( Gaffery ) to the Secretary of State

secret
us urgent

955. Following is a free translation of a note on Spain which Bidault has just handed me:

“On December 12 the Provisional Government draw the attention of the British and United States Governments to the danger which the maintenance in Spain of the Franco regime constitutes. On the same occasion it proposed to the other two Allied Governments to examine jointly with it the eventuality of a rupture of relations with the Spanish Government.

Since this date the situation has become aggravated. Despite numerous public declarations, General Franco has not, at any time, given to international public opinion the impression that he was preparing an evolution of the internal regime of Spain. Moreover, it appears that concentrations of Franquist troops have occurred on the French-Spanish frontier. Finally, executions of a political character and among them the recent execution of Christino Garcia, a participant in the fight for liberation, have given further proof of the slight regard of the actual Chief of Spain for the lives of his political adversaries and for justice.

The Provisional Government of the Republic esteems therefore that the policy actually followed by the Government of General Franco, constituting as it does a real challenge both to the principles of international right and democratic ideals, risks creating a situation jeopardizing peace and international security. In raising again this distressing problem, the French Government cannot forget the very terms of ‘the declaration of liberated Europe’ by which the high authorities of Great Britain, the United States and Soviet Russia [Page 1044] affirmed, on the 13th of February, 1945 their common purpose ‘to aid by common accord the peoples of the former Axis satellites to solve by democratic means their pressing political and economic problems’.27

It also appears to the French Government that the moment has come to give practical application to the resolution which constitutes the last paragraph of the above-mentioned declaration: ‘When in the opinion of the three governments conditions in any European liberated state or any former Axis satellite state in Europe make such action necessary, they will immediately consult together on the measures necessary to discharge the joint responsibilities set forth in the declaration’. Finally, it appears useful to recall the spirit in which the General Assembly of the United Nations, in its resolution of Feb 8, 194628 recommended to its members to examine their relations with Spain under these circumstances the French Government esteems that the above-mentioned situation should be submitted for examination to the Security Council of the United Nations. It would like to know as soon as possible the point of view of the United States Government on this matter, and notably if it would agree to associate itself with the French Government to take up this question with the Security Council.

The same démarche is being made to the Governments of Great Britain and Soviet Russia.”

Sent Dept as 955, repeated Madrid as 50.

Caffery
  1. For text of the Declaration on Liberated Europe, signed February 11, 1945, see Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945, p. 977.
  2. Resolution introduced by the delegation of Panama and adopted by the General Assembly on February 9, 1946.