Britain and the Spanish Anti-Franco Opposition, 1940–1950 Also by David J. Dunthorn SPAIN IN AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT, 1936–1959 (co-editor with Christian Leitz) Britain and the Spanish Anti-Franco Opposition, 1940–1950 David J. Dunthorn Visiting Lecturer for Modern European History University of the West of England Bristol © David J.Dunthorn 2000 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-333-91796-1 All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced,copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,90 Tottenham Court Road,London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2000 by PALGRAVE Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVEis the new global academic imprint of St.Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-1-349-42341-5 ISBN 978-1-4039-1944-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781403919441 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dunthorn,David J.(David Joseph) Britain and the Spanish anti-Franco opposition,1940–1950 / David J. Dunthorn. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1.Great Britain—Foreign relations—Spain.2.Spain—Foreign public opinion,British—History—20th century.3.Government,Resistance to– –Spain—History—20th century.4.Public opinion—Great Britain– –History—20th century.5.Great Britain—Foreign relations– –1936–1945.6.Great Britain—Foreign relations—1945–1964.7. Franco,Francisco,1892–1975—Adversaries.8.Spain—Foreign relations– –Great Britain.9.Spain—Foreign relations—1939–1975.I.Title. DA47.8 .D86 2000 327.41046—dc21 00–040456 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 To my wife and family Contents Acknowledgements viii Introduction 1 1 Spanish Opposition before 1945 11 2 Britain and the Spanish Opposition until 1944 28 3 1945: Adjusting to Peace 45 4 1946: International Confrontation 73 5 1947: British Intervention 102 6 1948–1950: the Frustration of the Anti-Franco Impulse 132 7 Conclusion 161 Notes 169 References 205 Index 228 vii Acknowledgements This study began as a PhD thesis under the supervision of Professor Glyn Stone and Dr Martin Thomas of the School of History, University of the West of England, and Professor John Young of the Department of Poli- tics, University of Leicester. I am grateful for their advice and guidance, intellectual rigour and generous bestowal of time. Needless to say, the conclusions arrived at in this study and any errors it may contain are my own. I thank, too, Professor Paul Preston of the London School of Economics and Political Science and Dr Michael Richards of the Uni- versity of the West of England, who examined the original thesis. Before his departure for the Department of History, University of Auckland, New Zealand, I also received valuable advice and encouragement from Dr Christian Leitz. The progress of my research in England depended on the effi- cient service of the Public Record Office, Kew, the libraries of the Uni- versity of the West of England and of Bristol University, the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Cambridge University Library and the British Library, London. The annual conferences of the British International History Group gave my research further stimulus, and discussion of a paper I delivered in 1997 provided a valuable opportunity for refining my thoughts. In Spain I was treated with unfailing courtesy and generosity by all whom I consulted. In particular, I thank Da Elisa Carolina de Santos Canalejo, Director of the General Archive of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, D. Ignacio Ruiz, Director of the Archive of the Prime Minister’s Office (Presidencia del Gobierno) and Da Luisa Auñón Man- zanares of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Relations with Parlia- ment and the Government Secretariat, D. Fernando Piedrafita Salgado, Director of the Fundación Universitaria Española, and Da Isabel Balsinde, the Fundación’s Librarian, and D. Aurelio Martín of the Fun- dación Pablo Iglesias; all in Madrid. I thank, too, DaMaría Luisa Conde Villaverde, Director of the Archivo General de la Administración, Alcalá de Henares. The staff of the National Library, Madrid, were efficient and cheerful. And even though my request to consult the Fundación Fran- cisco Franco in Madrid proved ultimately unsuccessful, it was listened to with characteristic courtesy. I am, finally, deeply grateful to my wife, Mary, for her patient viii Acknowledgements ix understanding during my four years’ suspension of essential tareas domésticas. Note To avoid confusion, ‘republican’ will be used to denote all Spaniards who supported the Frente Popular governments against the nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, while ‘republican’ will be used to denote only members of the actual republican parties of the Second Republic, such as Izquierda Unida, Unión Republicana, or the Partido Republicano Federalista. Accordingly, after the Civil War, the socialists and anarcho- syndicalists were part of the ‘republican’ opposition but not members of the ‘republican’ parties.