Carroll Quigley - Tragedy and Hope - A History of the World in Our Time

In the meantime, Italian and Portuguese aid kept the rebellion going. The French and British, whose only desire at first was to avoid an open clash arising from the Great Powers’ supplying arms and men to opposite sides in the conflict were prepared to sacrifice any interests of their countries to avoid this. Impelled by pacifist sentiments, and a desire to avoid war at any cost, French Premier Léon Blum and French Foreign Minister Yvon Delbos suggested on August 1, 1936, that an agreement not to intervene in Spain should be signed by the chief Powers concerned. This idea was eagerly taken up by Britain and was acceptable to the Popular Front government of France, since it was clear that if there was no intervention, the Spanish government could suppress the rebels. Great Britain accepted the French offer at once, but efforts to get Portugal, Italy, Germany, and Russia into the agreement were difficult because of the delays made by Portugal and Italy, both of which were helping the rebels. By August 24th all six Powers had agreed, and by August 28th the agreement went into effect.

Efforts to establish some kind of supervision by the Nonintervention Committee or by neutral forces were rejected by the rebels and by Portugal, while Britain refused to permit any restrictions to be placed on war materiel going to Portugal at the very moment when it was putting all kinds of pressure on France to restrict any flow of supplies across the Pyrenees to the recognized government of Spain (November 30, 1936). Britain also put pressure on Portugal to stop assistance to the rebels but with little success, as Portugal was determined to see a rebel victory. Along with Italy and Germany, Portugal delayed joining the nonintervention agreement until it decided that such an agreement would hurt the Loyalist forces more than the rebels. Even then there was no intention of observing the agreement or permitting any steps to enforce it if such actions would hamper the rebels.

On the other hand, France did little to help the Madrid government, while Britain was positively hostile to it. Both governments stopped all shipments of war materiel to Spain in the middle of August. By its insistence on enforcing nonintervention against the Loyalists, while ignoring the systematic and large-scale evasions of the agreement in behalf of the rebels, Britain was neither fair nor neutral, and had to engage in large-scale violations of international law. Britain refused to permit any restrictions to be placed on war materiel going to Portugal (in spite of its protests to Portugal for transshipping these to the rebels). It refused to allow the Loyalist Spanish Navy to blockade the seaports held by the rebels, and took immediate action against efforts by the Madrid government to interfere with any kind of shipments to rebel areas, while wholesale assaults by the rebels on British and other neutral ships going to Loyalist areas drew little more than feeble protests from Britain. In August 1936, when a Loyalist cruiser intercepted a British freighter carrying supplies to Morocco, the British battle cruiser Repulse went after the Spanish cruiser cleared for action. On the other hand, the British refusal to recognize the rebel government, or to grant it belligerent status, placed interference with shipping by these forces in the category of piracy; yet Britain did almost nothing when in one year (June 1937-June 1938) 10 British ships were sunk, 10 were captured and held, 28 more were seriously damaged, and at least 12 others were damaged by the rebels out of a total of 140 British ships which went to Spain in that year. By the beginning of 1937 Britain was clearly seeking a rebel victory, and, instead of trying to enforce nonintervention or to protect British rights on the seas, was actively supporting the rebel blockade of Loyalist Spain. This was clearly evident when the British Navy after May 1937 began to intercept British ships headed for Loyalist ports and on some pretext, or simply by force, made them go elsewhere, such as Bordeaux or Gibraltar. These tactics were admitted by the First Lord of the Admiralty in the House of Commons on June 29, 1938.

The rebel forces were fewer in numbers than the Loyalists, and fought with less vigor and under poor leadership, according to German secret reports from Spain at the time, but were eventually successful because of their great superiority in artillery, aviation, and tanks, as a result of the one-sided enforcement of the nonintervention agreement. This was admitted by the governments concerned as soon as the war was over, and by General Franco on April 13, 1939. We have seen that Italian intervention began even before the revolt broke out and that Portuguese intervention on behalf of the rebels followed soon after. German intervention was somewhat slower, although all their sympathies were with the rebels. At the end of July, a German citizen in Morocco organized a Spanish corporation called Hisma to obtain German supplies and assistance for the rebels. This firm began to transport the rebel troops from Morocco to Spain on August 2nd. It soon obtained a monopoly on all German goods sold to rebel Spain and set up a central purchasing office for this purpose in Lisbon, Portugal. By August all important units of the German Navy were in Spanish waters, and their ranking admiral paid a state visit to Franco in his headquarters in Morocco as early as August 3rd. These units gave naval support to the rebellion from then on.

Early in October, General Göring established a corporation called Rowak, with three million reichsmarks credit provided by the German government. This was given a monopoly on the export of goods to Spain, and orders were issued to the German Navy to protect these goods in transit.

The failure of the Franco forces to capture Madrid led to a joint Italian-German meeting in Berlin on October 20, 1936. There it was decided to embark on a policy of extensive support for Franco. As part of this policy both Powers recognized the Franco government and withdraw their recognition from Madrid on November 18, 1936, and Italy signed a secret alliance with the rebel government ten days later. Japan recognized the Franco regime early in December, following the signature of the German-Japanese Anti-Comintern Pact of November 25, 1936.

As a result of all these actions, Franco received the full support of the aggressor states, while the Loyalist government was obstructed in every way by the “peace-loving” Powers. While the Axis assistance to the rebels was chiefly in the form of supplies and technical assistance, it was also necessary to send a large number of men to work some of this equipment or even to fight as infantry. In all, Italy sent about 100,000 men and suffered about 50,000 casualties (of which 6,000 were killed). Germany sent about 20,000 men, although this figure is less certain. The value of the supplies sent to General Franco was estimated by the countries concerned as 500 million reichsmarks by Germany and 14 billion lire by Italy. Together this amounts to over three-quarters of a billion dollars.

On the other side, the Loyalists were cut off from foreign supplies almost at once because of the embargoes of the Great Powers, and obtained only limited amounts, chiefly from Mexico, Russia, and the United States, before the Nonintervention agreement cut these off. On January 18, 1937, the American Neutrality Act was revised to apply to civil as well as international wars, and was invoked against Spain immediately, but “unofficial” pressure from the American government prevented exports of this kind to Spain even earlier. As a result of such actions, shortages of supplies for the Madrid government were evident at the end of August and became acute a few weeks later, while supplies for the rebels were steadily increasing.

The Madrid government made violent protests against the Axis intervention, both before the Nonintervention Committee in London and before the League of Nations. These were denied by the Axis Powers. An investigation of these charges was made under Soviet pressure, but the committee reported on November 10th that these charges were unproved. Indeed, Anthony Eden, nine days later, went so far as to say in the House of Commons that so far as nonintervention was concerned, “there were other Governments more to blame than either Germany or Italy.”