Chapter 24 - 1936 - The Spanish Civil War Begins

"In 1936 the Spanish Civil War broke out.  I mean it didn’t break out.  In February of ’36 there was elected in Spain a Republican government which had about a million of majority votes.

This government in Spain was a progressive government made up largely of republicans and democrats, what you would call in this country - labour elements.  The same elements made up the Labour Party in Britain.  Spain founded a Republican government.  But there were four generals in Spain all associated with the Moorish garrisons in Morocco.  One was Franco and one was Mola. When the people of Spain voted [for] this government, certain rightist elements in Spain brought Franco and Mola back from Morocco to crush the legally elected Republican government. When they came back they brought Moorish troops with them and they organized Moorish troops into a right-wing opposition to the Republican government.  The British government, playing into the hands of this right-wing government declared a non-intervention pact.

In Britain, the Clivedon Set was a set of very reactionary fascist minded people of high rank. Among that set of people was the Prince of Wales at that time – later became the Duke of Windsor. [He] hung around with that Cliveden Set [and] his American wife was a great admirer....  They launched supporting movements through Paris for this growing group of ultra-rightists who wanted to overthrow the legally elected Republican government, which they finally did.  They got support in the right way from Britain because Britain put into effect the non-intervention pact, which in effect was an intervention pact. Because the legally elected government was attacked by rightists and its own armed services, they had to have access to arms to fight..  Britain passed this non-intervention pact denying this government the right to buy arms to defend itself. And of course, we were opposed to that.”