Spain : memorandum of interviews / Walter Citrine... Lord Cranborne ; Lord Plymouth
1937-10-11 016b-0044-003 MEMORANDUM OF INTERVIEW. Date Time to Reference Present SUBJECT. -2- consulted. Some time ago at Geneva, Mr. Delbos had asked Lord Cranborne whether the British were willing to make a joint approach to Franco to evacuate certain refugees from Gijon. Lord Cranborne had re...
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English |
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11 October 1937
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/1EBA98E3-C539-4010-8BB9-64DF8BC28DA6 http://hdl.handle.net/10796/B5E05FC5-6371-474C-95B6-27887AEC4F84 |
| Summary: | 1937-10-11
016b-0044-003
MEMORANDUM OF INTERVIEW. Date Time to Reference Present SUBJECT. -2- consulted. Some time ago at Geneva, Mr. Delbos had asked Lord Cranborne whether the British were willing to make a joint approach to Franco to evacuate certain refugees from Gijon. Lord Cranborne had replied that they were quite willing to make the approach jointly or separately but that in any case they would have to insist that the hostages held by the Republican forces at Gijon should also be evacuated. This had been communicated to Franco indirectly, and he did not seem very concerned about these hostages. The excesses at Gijon in the early days of the war had been so great that Franco thought that the hostages how held by the Republican forces were of little consequence to him, as all his best allies had already been killed. Franco did not look very favourably upon approaches from the British Government, who had declined to recognise him or extend belligerent rights, and he blamed the British Government for sending food ships to Bilbao, the effect of which, Franco alleged, was to cost him 20,000 men by the continuance of the Basque resistance. We then discussed the question as to whether it was possible for the British Government to give protection to vessels carrying combatants, assuming that these were disarmed, and Lord Cranborne said it would be very difficult for them to get away from Gijon, which was closely invested by Franco's warships, and pointed out that at no time had the British Government given protection within territorial waters. He promised, however, to report to Mr. Eden all that had been said.
292/946/16b/48(iii) |
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| Physical Description: | TEXT |