r COJq. / Uos<ZF> h fi* 
_ The Sj^n'isiri War.. 

The Spanish War 
and 

Lying Propaganda 
By 

JOSEPH B. CODE 
Sc.Hist.D. (Louvain), F.R.Hist.S. 

of the 
DEPARTMENT OP HISTORY 

CATHOLIC U N I V E R S I T Y 
Washington, D. Ç. 

THE PAULIST PRESS * 401 West 59th Street • New York, N. Y. 

W H E N Y O U R E A D T H I S P L E A S E K E E P 
I T IN C I R C U L A T I O N 



TO THE HEROES OF SPAIN 
DEAD AND LIVING 

Nihil Obstat: 

Imprimatur: 

A R T H U B J . S C A N L A N , S . T . D . , 
Censor Librorum. 

I F P A T R I C K CARDINAL H A Y E S . 
Archbsihop of New York. 

New York, July 21, 1938. 

P R I N T E D AND P U B L I S H E D I N T H E D . S. A . BY T H E PAULIST PRESS, N E W YORK, N . Y . 

D e a e W f f l s d 



The Spanish War and 
Lying Propaganda 

By if Special W 
JOSEPH B. CODE 

S C . H I S T . D . (Louvain), F . R . H I S T . S . 

p E R H A P S at no other period in the history of the world 
has there been so much and such widespread propa-

ganda. This has been brought out in a most especial way 
by the deplorable treatment in this country of the Spanish 
struggle. From one side of the war there has emanated 
falsehoods and misinterpretations that are astounding to 
the honest observer. Information has been sent out with 
little regard for truth or decency by the sympathizers of the 
Spanish Leftists. So enormous and vicious has this propa-
ganda been that even otherwise intellectually honest men 
have succumbed to it. The result is that the majority 
of Americans believe that the fight in Spain is between 
Fascism and Democracy, if not between Fascism and Com-
munism; that the forces of Generalissimo Franco are for-
eign mercenaries, barbarous, cruel, bent upon the destruc-
tion of the Spanish people; that Generalissimo Franco is 
another Hitler or Mussolini, and that Fascism is the sup-
posed goal of the Nationalists. 

This is not surprising when one realizes that Spanish 
Leftist propaganda agencies have literally blanketed this 
country with distorted, false and misleading information. 
Newspapermen, publicity experts and army officers who 
make a special study of this matter are amazed at the ex-
tent of this propaganda and the highly efficient way in 
which it is organized, financed and directed. So well 

[ l ] 



organized is it, indeed, that a special news service— 
Juvenud—is being sent to editors of American high school 
papers direct from Barcelona. Other material is being 
mailed by Leftist groups in the United States to religious 
in American convents. Batches of alleged atrocity pic-
tures, together with printed and embossed pamphlets and 
other material, are being sent to members of Congress and 
influential Americans from the Office of the Ministry of 
Propaganda in Barcelona. 

Undoubtedly the chief propaganda agency in this coun-
try has been and still is the so-called Spanish Embassy in 
Washington. I t is the "so-called Spanish Embassy" be-
cause it has been nothing more nor less than a propaganda 
factory. 

The principal task since October, 1936, of the present 
Ambassador, Fernando de los Rios y Urruti, has been to 
develop and sustain a public opinion favorable to the 

Spanish Leftists. In attempting this he 
Embasse dinS p a n i S h h a s u t n i z e d e v e r y opportunity, as was 
Washington his right, to speak and to hold press 

conferences. But it is significant that 
most of his talks have been before Communist, Socialist and 
other radical organizations. On occasion he has been severely 
reprimanded by American editorial opinion for his brazen-
ness. In fact he has made so many propaganda talks in New 
York City that the metropolitan newspapers rarely chronicle 
his activities. The newspaper which features him most is the 
Communist Daily Worker. 

By his own admission, Professor de los Rios is a rather 
successful propagandist. At the time of the conference of 
the Leftist Spanish ambassadors, which was held in Madrid 
in July, 1937, in reference to the state of world opinion 
regarding the Spanish situation, he declared that whereas 
in the beginning of the civil war the majority of Americans 
were sympathetic toward the Nationalists they now favor 
the Leftists {The New York Times, July 23, 1937). This 
is not surprising when one recalls the public charge made by 
the writer in New York City, April 3, 1938, which as yet has 
never been disproved, namely, that the Spanish Leftist 

[ 2 J 



Embassy in Washington is a veritable propaganda factory, 
supported by at least fifteen million dollars, which was 
seized from the Bank of Spain at the outbreak of hostilities. 
This charge elicited from Professor de los Rios a brutal 
denial. When publicly challenged to bring the matter into 
a regularly constituted court of justice he kept a discreet 
silence. The professor could not risk exposure in a court 
of law or before a congressional investigation committee. 
Finally, when questioned by newspapermen in Barcelona 
about this charge he replied that it "was too ridiculous 
to be worth denying" ( T h e New York Times, May 15, 
1938). And this in spite of the fact that he had denied the 
charge on April 4, 1938, according to an Associated Press dis-
patch from Cleveland, Ohio. Either the professor's memory 
is bad or he holds truth lightly. 

At the outbreak of the war the Bank of Spain was 
holding for the Spanish nation—not for the Government— 
the world's fifth largest gold reserve, amounting to approxi-
mately $489,000,000. This, as well as 
more than $300,000,000 in private prop- | p o n ! s ! ? G ? l d . 

I . ' , Spent in America erty, was seized by the Madrid regime 
and used to further its own ends not only in Spain, but else-
where in Europe and in America. Part of this money which 
belonged to the whole Spanish people and should not have 
been used for partisan purposes enabled Fernando de los Rios 
to conduct a propaganda factory camouflaged as an em-
bassy. In so doing he violated a fundamental principle of 
diplomatic ethics. Citizen Genet, early in our history, attempt-
ed something of the kind and was escorted to the port of New 
York as an undesirable. Baron Lionel Sackville was given 
his passports in 1888 for a much less serious matter. There 
are those who believe that Professor de los Rios should be at-
tended to in the same manner, if for no other reason than he 
is partly responsible for the death of so many Americans. 
The professor must have had little regard for the intelligence 
of the American people if he thought they could be treated to 
the spectacle of thousands of their youths going into a foreign 
land to fight and die for a foreign cause without seriously 
questioning why these young Americans, shaming our patri-

[ 3 ] 



otism by misusing the names of Washington and Lincoln, 
have become involved in an issue which is no concern of this 
country. 

In fact, the most deplorable tactics 
Irregularity of h a y e b e e n r e s o r t e d t o j n o r d e r t o g e t 
Enlistments T - . I T enlistments. Captain John koghan 
Kelly writes in America, of October 23, 1937: 

Red recruiting agents are prolific in their promises. The 
rewards vary with the prospect. The average pay promised is 
$60 per month and expenses to and from Spain. Aviators 
and technicians have been offered as much as $1,500 per month. 
The recruiting agents have no hesitancy in naming any figure 
necessary to secure enlistment since, with the exception of per-
haps the first month's pay, the promise is never kept. There is 
no need t o ; protests are met with the bland statement t h a t all 
Spaniards are expected to sacrifice for Spain, repetitions bring 
summary punishment. 

Upon selection the recruit is passed upon by a committee 
and certified to the Red Consul General as worthy of a pass-
port. Once equipped with the passport no time is lost, the 
recruit is hurried to the ship, provided with his ticket and 
five dollars expense money and carefully watched lest he slip 
back to shore at the last moment. The Reds appear to find 
passports no obstacle. At first, whenever eligible, they applied 
for American passports under the guise of tourists to Europe. 
The State Department put a stop to that, as far as possible, 
despite a barrage of protests from American radical leaders, by 
stamping passports "not valid in Spain" and stationing agents 
a t French ports to take up the passports of those who had de-
ceived the American Government as to their true destination. 
In this way a considerable number of passports have been lifted 
b u t the State Department has not power of arrest abroad and 
the recruits were free to continue to Spain. The Spanish Consul 
in New York, representing the. Red Valencia Government, also 
issues passports to the recruits. These solemnly recite that the 
applicants are Spanish citizens and Spanish names are selected 
for them. Thus on May 27, 1937, the Consulate General of Red 
Spain in New York issued to naturalized America citizens 
of Italian origin passports in the following names: Juan Polo 
Iglesias, Genaro Perez Rubio, Bruno Agra Serra, Domingo Se-
garra Perez and Alfonso Bertran Sala. Oh the same day the 
Consul issued to Cubans or Cuban-Americans desirous of fight-
ing for Communism the following passports: Jorge Agostini 
Villasana, Waldo Martinez Diaz, Lino Garcia Milian, Leonardo 
Izquierdo Alonso. . . . 

[ 4 



In Spain, in accordance with Commhnist practice, the re-
cruits are supervised by political commissars who note those 
showing talent for recruiting or lecturing. Such men are from 
time to time returned to this country to speed u p the propa-
ganda and keep the cars of the "underground railway" full. 
Among .such returned propagandists are Samuel Stember, "com-
mander of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion," the three Flaherty 
brothers, whose pretensions were scathingly denounced as anti-
American by Governor Hurley of Massachusetts, and Frederick 
Lord. Consider the case history of the latter. Born in Wis-
consin in 1900, he boasts of an unverifiable record of air con-
quests in the British service on the Western Front and in Rus-
sia. Together with three other American flyers, he enlisted 
in the Red service a t $1,S00 per month and a blood money bounty 
for each Nationalist plane shot down. In his speeches under the 
sponsorship of the American League Against War and Fascism 
and the Medical Bureau in Aid of Spanish Democracy (God 
save the m a r k ! ) he claims to have served the Reds from No-
vember, 1936, to May, 1937, destroying 13 "Fascist" planes. 
His companions in the mercenary adventure report that he served 
two weeks, made only two flights, carefully avoiding the Na-
tionalist lines, and that his plane was a commercial model, un-
armed. Lord formerly held the rank of M a j o r , Specialist Re-
serve, United States Army, and was dismissed from the service 
on March 23, 1937, upon admission of service with the Reds. 
Yet on September 9, 1937, the Jersey Journal (Jersey City), 
chronicled a talk the preceding night a t the Jewish Community 
Center in Jersey City by " M a j o r Frederick Lord," illustrated by 
a photograph of Lord in American Army uniform. Inquiry 
developed that the photograph had been furnished to the news-
paper by the publicity office of the Community Center. Wear-
ing of the American uniform unlawfully, or impersonating a 
Federal officer is a penal offense. 

The conductors of this "underground railway" with fifteen 
months' experience to guide them have become expert in their 
task. More and more smoothly the shipment of men goes for-
ward. The American Government is hampered by lack of 
laws, the French authorities sanctimoniously look the other way, 
the Red machine functions unhampered. The State Department 
is represented as feeling that the American volunteers serving 
in the Spanish Red Army since the outbreak of the Spanish war 
in that country are not required to take an oath of allegiance 
to Spain or be naturalized as citizens of t h a t country, and are 
therefore not subject to expatriation. Yet our laws . . . provide 
penalties to those "entering the military service" of a foreign 
nation or faction, whether or not such persons go through the 

[ S ] 



form of taking an oath of allegiance. If the Administration 
chooses to stand on the letter of the Act of March 2, 1937, re-
quiring the taking of an oath of allegiance to Red Spain, there 
is much evidence a t hand or within the power of the Govern-
ment to obtain. When a recruit accepts a false Spanish pass-
port from a consul of the Valencia regime, he swears that he is 
a Spanish citizen. When the question of withdrawing foreign 
volunteers from Spain was first raised, the Valencia regime an-
nounced that it had no foreigners in its armies, as all volunteers 
had been naturalized upon entering the military service. Authori-
ties have held that the acceptance of a military uniform and 
arms and obedience of orders from military commanders consti-
tutes an act of allegiance. When in the winter of 1936-37 
several score French volunteers, tired of service in the " I n t e r -
national Brigade," in which the American recruits also serve, 
and demanded to be sent home to France, they were shot " f o r 
treason." . . . 
The American people should know some of the facts 

which have never been adequately publicized about Fer-
nando de los Rios. In the past he has been vehemently 

critical of Americans and America, hav-
of" F e r n a n d o a n i S m i n g t h e r e P u t a t i o n a t o n e t i m e o f b e i n 8 
de los Rios anti-American ( N e w York Evening Sun, 

July 19, 1937). While a member of the 
Spanish Cortes in 1920, he denounced the United States for 
"its insatiable land hunger" and for "its increasing encroach-
ments" on Latin-American affairs. At the same time he 
said that the seizure of Mexico by the United States was 
only a question of time. In a speech before the American 
Club of Madrid on March 8, 1932, he had the effrontery 
to state that the United States would be "reorganized" 
along Socialistic lines (The New York Times, March 9, 
1932). Four years earlier, after completing a summer 
teaching term at the University of Puerto Rico, he tried 
to stir up trouble between Puerto Ricans and the United 
States by saying this country "did not understand the soul 
of Puerto Rico" (The New York Times, September IS, 
1929). 

Professor de los Rios is likewise an enemy of reli-
gion, which was and is the chief obstacle to the estab-
lishment of Spanish Communism. He has been a leader 

[ 6 ] 



of attacks on the Church since 1931, the date of the establish-
ment of the Spanish Republic. I t was he who was principally 
responsible for the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain ( T h e 
New York Times, May 25, 1931). In 
addition, he had the Government pass p ^ 1 ' 9 ' ™ ° f 
another bill, encouraging priests to marry j ® ' " R ° o s 
(The New York Times, September 11, 
1931), and still another, part of which legalized divorce by 
mutual consent on the Soviet Russia plan. These bills and 
others he instigated were aimed directly at the Church. 
The professor, who was then foreign minister, also was 
credited with being responsible for Spain's recognition of 
Soviet Russia in 1933, despite the vigorous objection of a 
large part of the Spanish people ( T h e New York Times, 
July 28, 1933). 

I t is not surprising, therefore, to find him in the role he 
has played since his arrival in America. When the full story 
of the Spanish war as it affected America shall have been 
told the activities of the Spanish Embassy will provide a 
chapter which will reflect little honor on the Spanish Leftist 
regime or its representatives in this country. As a slight 
indication of that full story are the circumstances con-
nected with the greeting which a number of United States 
Senators and Representatives were induced to sign and 
which was sent to the minority group in the Barcelona 
parliament, February 1, 1938. 

The statement emanated from the Spanish Embassy; 
after it had been signed by the congressmen a paragraph 
was added to it. The Honorable Fred Hildebrandt, United 
States Representative from South Dakota, denounced the 
action as " f r a u d " and "trickery" (Congressional Record, 
March 10, 1938). Only one conclusion can be drawn from 
Congressman Hildebrandt's statement: that the Spanish 
Embassy lent itself to a dishonorable piece of "doctoring," 
an action especially despicable under the circumstances. 

Next to the Spanish Embassy as the chief Spanish 
Leftist propaganda center is the Medical Bureau and the 
North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy. 
This organization was formed by a merger of the North 

[ 7 ] 



American Committee to aid Spanish Democracy with the 
Medical Bureau to aid Spanish Democracy. The North 
American Committee was founded in October, 1936, by the 

Communist American League Against 
Medical Bureau and ^ a r and Fascism, now the American 
the North American { Q r p e a c e a n d D e m o c r a c y . T h e 
Committee to Aid ° . , , 
Spanish Democracy American League, in turn, was founded 

by the late Henry Barbusse, notorious 
French Communist. The Medical Bureau and North Amer-
ican Committee occupies a whole floor at 381 Fourth Avenue, 
New York City. Headquarters of the New York County 
Committee of the Communist Party are in the same building. 
Communists, Socialists and other radicals are among the bu-
reau's officers and directors. Its publicity director, the 
"brains" of the organization, who left it some time ago, was 
Walter Carmen, a former editor of The New Masses, a radi-
cal magazine. At a meeting of the Greater New York Com-
mittee on June 9, 1938, the Communist salute of the 
clenched fist was enthusiastically given, and when.Russia 
and Stalin were mentioned the assembly gave itself over to 
unrestrained applause. Bishop Francis J . McConnell of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church was co-chairman of the meet-
ing. The Rev. Herman F. Reissig, Executive Secretary of 
the Bureau and Committee, Dr. Walter B. Cannon of 
the Harvard Medical School, and Stanley B. Isaacs, 
Borough President of Manhattan, were also noticed a t 
the meeting (N. C. W. C. News Service, June 10, 
1938). 

The Medical Bureau and North American Committee has 
twenty-one affiliates, nine of which are Communistic, three 
Affiliates of the Socialistic and eight controlled by rad-
Medical Bureau and icals, if not actually Communistic or So-
the North American cialistic. Its most respectable affiliate is 
Committee to Aid the American Friends of Spanish De-
Spanish Democracy 

K 7 mocracy. 
The "Friends" have made a record of some sort for 

issuing misleading statements, such as the letter imperti-
nently addressed to the Catholic hierarchy regarding the 
bombing of Barcelona. This statement was signed by sixty-

( 8 1 



one Protestant Episcopal and Methodist Episcopal Bishops, 
some of whom later retracted their signatures when they dis-
covered the nature of the message. Among the "Friends" 
are such well-known radicals as Roger N . Baldwin, Josephine 
Schain, Heywood Broun, John Dos Passos, Rabbi Stephen 
S. Wise and Vito Marcantonio. 

Communist groups affiliated with the Medical Bureau 
and the North American Committee include: The American 
League for Peace and Democracy, the American Student 
Union, the Book and Magazine Guild, the Communist Party, 
U. S. A., the International Labor Defense, the International 
Workers' Order, the Italian Anti-Fascist Committee, the 
Italian Committee to Aid Children of Spain and the Young 
Communist League. 

The three Socialistic affiliates are the Socialist Party, 
U. S. A., the Church League for Industrial Democracy and 
the League for Industrial Democracy. 

Radical-controlled, if not outright Communistic or So-
cialistic, groups affiliated with the Medical Bureau and 
North American Committee include: The American Friends 
of Spanish Democracy, the Finnish Workers' Federation, the 
Independent American Labor League, the Lettish Workers' 
Union, the Lithuanian Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy, 
the Musicians' Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy, the 
Theatre Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy and the Ger-
man-American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy. 

There are twelve sub-committees of the Medical Bureau 
and North American Committees, all of which are radical-
controlled: the Psychologists, Pediatrists, Social Workers, 
Federal Employees, Dental, Youth, Lawyers, Engineers, 
Writers and Artists, Faculty, and Women's Committees and 
the American Foster Parents Plan. 

In addition to the above, there are approximately one 
hundred and fifty branches of the Medical Bureau and 
North American Committee in various parts of the United 
States, besides fifty or more different group affiliates. Any 
club, organization or similar group with "to aid Spanish 
Democracy" in its name is an affiliate, virtually all of 
which are Communist, Socialist or radical-controlled. 

[ 9 ] 



The Medical Bureau and North American Committee 
achieved some unwelcome publicity when six Americans 
captured by Spanish Nationalists while serving with the 
Spanish Leftist Army informed a correspondent of The 
New York Times that they had been recruited for service 
in Spain by the "North American Committee to Aid Span-
ish Democracy." This charge was subsequently denied but 
not refuted. Hence, if it is true, officers of the committee 
are liable to charges of violating a Federal law in recruit-
ing soldiers on American soil for a foreign army. 

Number three on the list of Spanish Leftist Propaganda 
agencies in the United States is the Friends of the Abraham 
Lincoln Battalion. Their publicity director, Rex Pitkin, 
a radical, has assembled one of the most active staffs of 
publicity experts in the country. The secretary of this 
group is Phil Bard, a member of the National Executive 
Committee of the Communist Party. Though few in num-
ber, they work overtime to publicize those Americans serv-
ing with the Spanish Leftists. One of their favorite de-
vices is to send returned veterans, either wounded or well, 

on propaganda speaking tours through-
Friends of the Q u t t h e country. Although still Amer-
Abranam Lincoln „ 
Battalion i c a n dtizens, these veterans sometimes 

wear their Spanish Leftist military uni-
forms to add glamour to their appearances. David McKelvy 
White, chairman of the Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Bri-
gade, declared that roughly 2,500 to 2,800 Americans have 
fought with the Spanish Leftists ( T h e New York Times, 
May 23, 1938). The "Friends" have been accused more 
than once of expediting the recruiting on American soil and 
in direct contravention of Federal law, of Americans, mostly 
radicals, to fight in Spain with the Leftists. I t is estimated 
that they have raised more than $100,000 to send food, cloth-
ing and other supplies to Americans fighting with the Leftist 
forces. 

The Spanish Consulate in New York City is number 
four on the list of Spanish Leftists propaganda agencies. 
Luis Carreaga, the consul, like Professor de los Rios, ap-
parently never misses an opportunity to speak before Amer-

[ 10 ] 



ican audiences on the Spanish crisis. But unlike Pro-
fessor de los Rios he is not so astute, skillful or per-
sonable. Nevertheless, he is equally as apt in mailing out 
propaganda material. To his credit, however, it must be 
admitted that he pays postage. Senor Carreaga has been 
accused of forging Spanish passports for Americans going to 
Spain to enlist with the Leftist forces, and to date, as far 
as is known, he has neither refuted nor even denied the alle-
gation. Typical of other Spanish Leftist consuls in the 
United States, he is busy, like the professor, in propaganda 
work principally. 

Number five is the Spanish Information Bureau, the 
propaganda office in New York City of the Spanish Em-
bassy. Its director is the well-known radical, William P. 
Mangold. The principal function of this organization is to 
edit, print and distribute "News of Spain," a clip sheet 
issued fortnightly, printed on a good 
grade of paper, well-edited and filled l n f o r m a t i o n 
with the usual Spanish Leftist propa-
ganda distortions. Originally issued as "background" or "ex-
planatory" material for newspaper editors, it is now sent to 
thousands of influential Americans. 

In addition to these agencies, the publicity departments 
of the Communist Party, U. S. A., the Socialist Party, 
U. S. A., the American League for Peace and Democracy, and 
dozens of other radical groups sympathetic to the Spanish 
Leftists have been active in spreading misleading informa-
tion. Innumerable meetings have been held under their aus-
pices, at which every mention of Soviet Russia is applauded. 
They are also responsible for countless street corner gather-
ings, parades, mass and individual picketing, as well as other 
demonstrations. 

The ambulance approach is a favorite method of the 
propagandists. In scores of trade union organizations ap-
peals are being made for funds to buy ambulances. The 
same appeal is being made in scores of colleges and univer-
sities, under the sponsorship of radical student groups, prin-
cipally the American Student Union. One of the most vigor-
ous ambulance propaganda campaigns has been carried on in 

r 113 



Hollywood, where prominent movie stars—Joan Crawford, 
Franchot Tone, Sylvia Sydney, James Cagney, Paul Muni, 
Lionel Stander, Frances Farmer, among others—have lent 

their names to radical-controlled organ-
Hollywood izations soliciting contributions. Tag 
Sympathizers , S . , nmrtf days, theater parties and various street 
car, bus, street corner and subway money solicitations are 
everyday occurrences in New York City. 

Although there is no objection to collecting funds for 
humanitarian purposes, when these collections are exploited 
for propaganda purposes, there is the condemnation. 
In Hollywood, for example, two ambulances were shipped 
recently to be "signed" by several scores of persons promi-
nent in the movie industry. The ambulances then were 
taken on a "triumphal" tour of the country, visiting fifty-
six American communities en route to New York City, 
where, after several more publicity appearances, they were 
finally shipped to the Leftists. At each city the usual propa-
ganda lectures on the Spanish civil war were given. 
This particular publicity attempt drew a severe censure 
from Frank Pope, prominent motion picture trade writer of 
Hollywood. He said, "Why is all this ballyhoo necessary, 
especially when it reacts to the detriment of the industry 
which makes it possible for this aid to be given? And that 
it does react there is no denying. The two ambulances, 
autographed by one hundred film notables, which were sent 
across this country on their way to Spain, would help just 
as many sufferers there if the autographs were missing." 

Another ambulance was allegedly contributed last spring 
by the "faculty members, students and employees of Har-
vard University," according to large letters printed on both 
sides of the vehicle. The same ambulance was seen in the 
1937 Communist-Socialist May Day parade in New York 
City, and in another parade in August. I t is a question 
if this ambulance was ever sent out of the country. 

Sixth on the list of the propaganda groups is the Con-
federated Spanish Societies of Brooklyn. This organiza-
tion is composed of seventeen Spanish-speaking societies, 
nearly all of which are either Communist or Socialist in con-

[ 12 ] 



trol and policies. This is the group which sponsored one of 
the best propaganda devices of the year when eight hundred 
Spanish-speaking women came to Washington in the interest 
of the Neutrality Act. The entire demonstration was di-
rected by the well-known Spanish-American Communist, 
Mrs. Ernestine Gonzalez. 

A prolific and profitable Spanish Leftist propaganda source 
in the United States is the lecture tour venture. Typical of 
the other radical propagandists sent to this country by the 
Spanish Leftist Government are the most recent arrivals 
José Bergamin, the so-called Catholic editor who once edited 
a Catholic paper which drifted finally 
into Red waters; Ramon Sender, "inter- T o u r 
nationally famous writer," who wrote 
two books on the Spanish class struggle and by that criterion 
is hailed by the Communist press with the foregoing appella-
tion; Carmen Meana, a hitherto unknown "social" worker at 
Madrid, and Ojier Precteceille, head of a radical counterpart 
in Spain of the American Newspaper Guild. They are now 
on a "personally conducted" tour of thirty-six American 
cities, under the auspices of the Medical Bureau and the 
North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy. 

Leftist Spain also has been a favorite "vacation" coun-
try for hundreds of American Communists. I t is astonishing 
to note the number of those who have "toured" Leftist Spain, 
generally as the honored guests of the Leftist Government. 
On their return to this country they have joined the ranks of 
lecture platform artists, or have become just plain "stump" 
speakers. By visiting Red Spain they have "qualified" as 
"experts" on the present situation. So many "welcome home" 
meetings have been given for these "experts" on their return 
to America that they have ceased to be novelties. 

Another interesting sidelight of Spanish Leftist propa-
ganda is the attempt to influence the 
editorial and news policies of certain Letter-Writing i i Brigades newspapers by the letter-writing brigades 
which have been formed by the Communist Party, U. S. A., 
and other radical organizations. The Federal Writers Pro-
ject deserves special mention in this connection. News-

[ 13 ] 



papers which feature anything favorable to the Nationalists 
immediately are bombarded with letters of protest from 
members of these organizations. The letters are often writ-
ten under assumed signatures. 

With a Nationalist victory in Spain daily becoming 
more apparent, the propagandists in America have redoubled 
their efforts. One of their recent lines of attack was the at-

tempt to repeal the United States 
Act' N e U t r ° l i f y Neutrality Act. Representatives Jere-

miah O'Connell of Montana, Byron Scott 
of California, and John T. Bernard of Minnesota, born 
in Corsica, their chief propagandists in Congress, made 
every attempt to get this Act repealed, apparently to permit 
the shipment of munitions to the Spanish Leftists. The 
principal argument for the lifting of the embargo was the 
charge that the Nationalists were alleged to be receiving 
American war supplies from Italy and Germany, which 
worked to the discrimination of the Leftists. 

State Department Records show that Russia and 
Mexico, to say nothing of France, all supporters of the 
Madrid-Barcelona regime, have purchased war materials in 
this country out of all proportion to the amount bought by 
Italy and Germany over the same period. For the seven 
months from September, 1937, to March, 1938, inclusive, 
Germany and Italy bought $725,140.02 worth of war mate-
rials in this country, while Russia and Mexico bought 
$14,754,537.14 worth of such materials. These figures were 
made known by the writer in a public address at Cornell Uni-
versity, Ifhaca, N . Y., May 7, 1938, and were reported in 
The New York Times the following morning. They were 
corroborated the same day by the figures released by Secre-
tary of State Hull, who even went further and stated that 
because of the nature of the material sold to Germany and 
Italy, very little was exportable to Spain for use by the Na-
tionalists {The New York Times, May 8, 1938). 

Hence it may be seen that the need of arms for the Span-
ish Leftists was not the major consideration of the repeal 
propagandists. 

The discovery of Miles Sherover, president of the Han-
114 1 



over Sales Corporation and head of the Soviet Securities 
Corporation, as one of the leaders in the repeal agita-
tion revealed the true nature of this 
piece of Communistic propaganda. I t M u i i ^ n s T e a i e r 
was not so much to help the Spanish 
Leftists as to promote the cherished Soviet plan of collec-
tive security, to weaken the Anglo-French hands-off policy 
as regards Spain by presenting the United States as the 
champion of the Leftists, and to permit the shipment of men 
and munitions to Europe, in the hope that an attack upon 
ships carrying these consignments might embroil this coun-
try in a war with those nations, enemies of the Soviets. The 
danger that the fanatical propagandists would lead this 
country into war prompted the Secretary of State to write 
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that lifting of the 
Spanish arms embargo would be unadvisable "since we do 
not know what lies ahead in the Spanish situation." The 
Foreign Relations Committee acted upon the recommenda-
tion of the State Department and thus this vicious strategy, 
not only un-American, but anti-American, ended in failure. 

How determined was the effort to change the Neutrality 
Act may be seen in the denial of Dr. Mary E. Woolley, 
President Emeritus of Mount Holyoke College, that she had 
either signed or authorized the signing 
of her name to the petition which carried E" W o o , , e y 
her name for the repeal of the Neutrality Neutrality Act 
Act and which was presented to the State 
Department, May 5th, by one hundred signers, headed by 
Dr. J . A. MacCallum, editor of the Presbyterian Tribune 
(The New York Times, May 6, 1938). 

Meanwhile, there was a sudden and an almost terrifying 
renascence in fund raising, tag days, Spain protest meetings 
and other propaganda artifices. The propaganda tom-toms 
are still beating for all they are worth; the Daily Worker 
and other radical publications are spilling rivers of ink in 
appeals to "do something" to help the Leftists; and the 
"comrades" are in the streets in droves appealing for 
funds, undoubtedly because propaganda costs money, and 
even the Communists can use that capitalist unit. 

[ I S ] 



The tragedy of it all is that this propaganda has been 
so successful. Even a certain number of Catholics have 
been taken in by it. And thus another ruse of Moscow— 
to split Catholic sentiment on vital issues—has been one 
of the most unfortunate results of Spanish Leftist activities 
in the United States. Strange as it may seem, the prover-
bial sense of fair play, which we have come to look upon 
as something so typically American, has been practically 
absent in the treatment of the Spanish crisis. For in-
stance, on October 3, 1937, representatives of two great 
Christian denominations protested against the bombing by 
the Nationalists of Barcelona. Taken in itself this might 

have been a noble gesture; b u t viewed 
Protest of the j relation to the attitude of these gentle-
Protestant Bishops _ , . ° .... 

men when no less than half a million 
of innocent victims were butchered by the Madrid-Barce-
lona Leftists, this action savored of mental obtuseness or 
hypocrisy. 

Mr. Ellery Sedgwick, editor of The Atlantic Monthly, 
wrote in the New York Journal and American, March 28, 
1938, 8th Edition: 

As an American Protestant, with firm conviction of the right 
of a free conscience to worship God, I protest against the revolu-
tionary social doctrines fostered by theological leaders in Ameri-
can Protestantism. 

The currents flow toward Communism. Why does a Com-
munist smoke screen, like the League f o r the Defense of Spanish 
Democracy, control 61 Protestant bishops? I t is a strange con-
tradiction. 

Either they are dupes of Marxism, or they are deliberately 
inviting Communism into Protestantism. 

If only the Protestant clergymen had a little more imagina-
tion ! If they would put themselves in the place of their Catholic 
brethren! If Protestant churches were burned; Protestant grave-
yards dug u p ; Protestant priests beaten before their altars; the 
sacred element of the Protestant communion swept from the 
table—then how different would be the feelings of these bishops 
who, in the safety of their own country, criticize the Spanish 
Catholics who cry out in agony. 
A protest came from another quarter, this time from the 

Protestant War Veterans of the United States who up-
braided the offending bishops for causing "a certain reflection 

[ 16 ] 



upon the entire Protestant population of the country." In 
a communication to the Reverend Doctor Joseph F. Thorn-
ing, of the faculty of Mount St. Mary's College, Emmits-
burg, Maryland, one of the ablest de-
fenders of the Christian cause in Spain, Protestant War 

. . , , , , . M Veterans Denounce who had been misquoted in the epis- ^ e t i o n 0 f 
copal letter, the Reverend Carl C. Protestant Bishops 
Underhill, Acting Chaplain of the Prot-
estant War Veterans, wrote under date of March 22, 1938: 

We have asked these leaders of the Church, did they utter 
one word of protest against the murder of Priests, and Sisters of 
Mercy in Spain, did they offer one word of protest against the 
massacre of millions of Christians as well as their Clergymen 
in Russia, under the Soviet? Did they offer one word of protest 
against the murder of thousands of Christians in Hungary under 
Bela Kun in 1920, and last b u t not least did they lend their 
voice in protest against the persecution of their Christian Breth-
ren (Catholics), in Mexico only a few years ago? . . . We are 
fighting Communism tooth and nail, asking no quarter and 
giving none, and the Communistic element will not get us to fight 
our Christian Brethren of the Catholic Church, for it is a Chris-
tian issue and not a secular issue. 
At the same time, Edward James Smythe, Chairman of 

the Protestant War Veterans, addressed a similar letter of 
protest to each of the sixty-one bishops in which he accused 
them of favoring Communism in Spain as against the Nation-
alism of General Franco. 

In a noteworthy article, "Christian Liberals—To Whom 
Are They Allied," in America of June 11, 1938, Benjamin 
L. Masse points out that however disappointing the attitude 
of the American press toward the Spanish crisis, it has not 
been nearly so depressing as the attitude of American Protes-
tantism. Despite the fact that here and there a lone Protes-
tant voice has been raised in protest against the attempted 
de-Christianization of the Spanish people, American Protes-
tants as a group swallowed 

the worst sort of anti-Catholic Propaganda without a single 
sign of protest. Prejudiced lies that should have left them as 
Christians, cold and suspicious, they refused to consider the 
truth, even when t h a t t r u t h was spoken in calm Christian 
dignity by the leaders of the C h u i t h in Spain. . . . I must con-

[ 17 ] 



tinue to fear lest this strange silence be the silence of ap-
proval. If it is, then we are living to see a very sad day for 
Protestantism and for all Christianity. We should never forget 
that our free institutions, our whole tradition of liberty, is 
rooted in Christianity; and if Catholics are left to defend alone 
the Christian cause, and consequently the ideals of our de-
mocracy, then American democracy is doomed. We can fight 
the menace of Communism, and fight it successfully, b u t if 
Christian bodies should league themselves with the Soviet in 
America, or even remain neutral, then Soviet will the America 
of our ancestors become. 
The Barcelona bombings also occasioned The Washington 

Post of March 23, 1938, to print an editorial which may be 
cited as a typical example of the unfairness which has char-

acterized the treatment of the Spanish 
"The Washington situation by the majority of our Amer-uLS! Bombings H newspapers. After pontifically as-

serting that two wrongs do not make a 
right, referring of course to the attention called to the silence 
of those who protested the bombing of Barcelona when the 
Leftists were massacring defenseless religious and civilians, it 
condemned unreservedly the bombing of the city. All decent 
persons regret the death or injury of noncombatants.- But 
protests over the bombing of Barcelona come with little grace 
from those who have been strangely silent about the atrocities 
of the Leftists. I t is common knowledge that the Spanish 
Reds have been guilty of the murder of thousands of reli-
gious and innocent civilians and that they have engaged in the 
same kind of aerial combat which they condemn in their 
adversaries. 

I t might be well to repeat here what has never been 
featured in the American press, namely, that from July 
18 to September 26 of 1936 alone, Leftist airmen bombed 
open or non-military towns more than fifty times; that up to 
July 1937, Seville was bombed nine times; Bobadilla nine 
times; Granada, seventeen times; Merida, nine times; and 
Cordoba, sixteen times. In addition to this, on several 
occasions peasants were machine-gunned while at work in 
the fields, and on October IS, 1937, a religious procession in 

,Saragossa was bombed by Leftist airmen, with approxi-
[ 1 8 ] 



mately four hundred victims, mostly noncombatants. Palma, 
on the Island of Majorca, underwent twenty-five Leftist 
air raids between July 25 and August 31, 1936, at a time 
when it had no defenses of any kind. One Leftist aviator 
personally told a London Universe writer that he repeatedly 
tried to blow up the Basilica of Our Lady of Pilar in 
Saragossa. 

This is not surprising when we read the following formal 
statement issued on November 9, 1937, by El Socialista, the 
official party organ of the Madrid 
Socialist party: "No moral scruple can " E ' S ° e . i a l i . l , t r " G i v e * 

• j g -nr R e d Principles hinder U S in our own defense . . . War Concerning Warfare 
demands the destruction of entire towns 
and the machine-gunning of women and children. We shall 
not renounce victory at any price . . . not even at the price 
of brutality" (pp. 407, 408). 

I t is significant, moreover, that little has been said of 
the refusal of the Barcelona authorities to permit the 
powers to superintend the removal of noncombatants from 
the coast cities to outlying towns, where there were no 
munition and poison gas factories, barracks or other 
military objectives, which exist in Barcelona, to the number 
of at least 180 and render it a legitimate target for bombs 
from the air or shells from battleships at sea. 

In a cable from Burgos to the National Catholic Welfare 
Conference News Service under date of March 21, 1938, the 
Nationalist Government of Spain gave valuable information 
on the situation in Barcelona. After 
making clear that it had in its posses- Borc«Iona 
sion collateral data in support of its E v o e u a t e 
declaration, the Nationalist Government Noncombatants 
revealed the exact location of numerous 
arsenals, ammunition dumps, barracks and other military 
stations, which the Leftists have established in innocent-ap-
pearing structures in that city. Among those buildings in 
which they had either concentrated large deposits of war sup-
plies or had turned into munition factories were the Univer-
sity of Barcelona, the Escolapian school, schools in the sector 
of Urquinaona Square and San Pedro Ronda, the Northern 

[ 19 ] 



Railway Station, the Liceo Theater, the old Bank of Spain, 
the old Bank of Barcelona, and in the seminary in the zone 
bounded by Letamendi Square and Grau Via Diagonal and 
Cortes Catalanas, etc. 

The planting in the heart of a great city of so many 
military objectives is but one evidence of the utter dis-
regard for the lives of innocent victims on the part of the 
Barcelona authorities. Even the pronounced Leftist sym-
pathizer, Herbert L. Matthews, acknowledged the pres-
ence in Barcelona of military objectives often harbored in 
innocent looking buildings. Writing in the magazine sec-
tion of The New York Times of Sunday, March 27, 1938, 
he said in part: 

Bombing is done for two reasons: either to destroy definite 
military objectives or to terrorize and demoralize the rear 
guard. In most of the earlier Barcelona raids the bombers 
have gone f o r specific objects and they have somehow ob-
tained remarkable precise information to go on. 

I recall one raid in which they plunked two bombs down on a 
garage in the heart of town and incidentally hit a maternity clinic 
and milk station for babies, which was across the street. There 
was a lot of indignation about it, but we, being hard-hearted news-
paper men, had to investigate before accusing the Rebel bombers 
of needless cruelty, and in so doing we found t h a t underneath the 
garage was one of the largest gasoline deposits in Barcelona. 
Somebody had passed the information across to the Insurgent 
command; a bomber flying very low had dropped f o u r bombs 
of which two hit the objective without, however, penetrating 
deeply enough to get the gasoline. The next day another 
deposit had t o be found. 

You never know, of course, what there may be in the 
innocent looking buildings around your home or hotel. When 
the Loyalists bombed Saragossa in November they got a muni-
tions depot the explosion of which must have killed many 
civilians who never dreamed t h a t danger was so near. In 
justifying his bombing of open towns recently General Franco 
stated there were something like 180 military objectives in 
Barcelona alone. I t does not do to trust anything when 
you are walking along a quiet residential street thinking that 
the planes will go elsewhere. Perhaps the big apartment house 
across the street is a barracks. 
I t should be remarked in this connection also that while 

the Pope's appeal to General Franco for moderation in 
the latter's offensive against Barcelona, as reported by 

[ 20 ] 



the Osservatore Romano, was highly. publicized by our 
daily press, there was no reprint of the report in the Osserva-
tore that twenty-seven priests had been 
slaughtered at that very time by the f T e r u e | ' 
Leftists at Teruel after that city had 
been taken from the Nationalists. 

More serious, however, was the expression of horror of 
our Secretary of State over the Barcelona bombings. Be-
cause of his position, Mr. Hull has sources of information 
at his command other than the daily newspapers. Surely 
he must have known about the warning of General Franco 
of the forthcoming attacks from the air and his offer of 
assistance in arranging for the evacuation of the civilians; 
he also must have been aware of the Leftist atrocities, 
which have already been mentioned, as 
well as the widespread destruction of ? I e c I r 1 e t a r J y ° f „ S t a t e 
, , 1 1 1 . 1 . 1 Hull and the Baree-churches, schools, hospitals, social cen- | o n a Bombings 

ters, art objects and historic monuments. 
Hence, his description of the situation at Barcelona, which 
naturally led to a widespread impression of General Franco 
as a wanton killer was something that cannot be dismissed 
lightly. One expects from our leading cabinet officer correct 
information, if he is to offer information on highly conten-
tious matters. When that information is partisan, the pro-
cedure is highly objectionable to a large part of the Amer-
ican people. 

Much has been said in the secular press regarding the 
foreign aid, in men and munitions, which Franco is alleged 
to have received especially from Italy and Germany. The 
well-known Argentine writer, Ricardo 
o T T • .• . . Foreign Aid to the Saenz Hayes, in reporting an inter- N a t i o 3 n a h s t s : M e n 
view with General Franco, wrote in the 
February, 1938, issue of La Revista Diplomatica y Social 
of Santiago, Chile, that Franco declared it was only after 
35,000 foreign soldiers had crossed the French border into 
Leftist Spain that he accepted foreign effectives. 

This agrees with the documented evidence of G. M. 
Godden in his Communism in Spain and with Douglas Jer-
rold in his Georgian Adventure. Here may be seen that 

[ 21 ] 



the first aggressors in Spain were France and Russia. I t 
should be of particular interest to Americans to note that 
one of the first steps toward foreign intervention was that 
taken by Fernando de los Rios. The following extracts 
from a letter he wrote to Don Jose Giral, then Prime Min-
ister, July 25, 1936, give a clear indication of the nature 
of the procedure: 

We examined our demands and, f r o m the attitude of the Min-
isters, I gathered t h a t there existed a divergency of opinions. A 
new question arose; t h a t Spanish aviators should come to Paris 
to fetch the machines; I pointed out the semi-impossibility of 
this owing to our scarcity of personnel and to our intention of 
retaining the French pilots. I was told, by one in a position 
to say this, that the whole consignment of airplanes and bombs 
was ready and could leave in the morning of today. . . . I re-
tired to sleep, and one hour later I was urgently aroused; the 
Air Minister, P . Cot, wished to visit m e ; he had inquired f o r 
me at the Embassy, and not finding me there, I was advised 
b y mutual friends t h a t in order not to awaken more suspicion, 
I should go to his house; I went there, and he told me it was 
impossible to convince the Minister f o r Foreign Affairs of the 
legality of French pilots in taking airplanes to Spain, the f o r -
mula was to take them to Perpignan, etc.; this is what I com-
municated last night, the 24th. 

When I went this morning to the Air Ministry everything 
was going well; when I arrived a t the Potez firm the difficulties 
seemed unsurmountable. The press campaign and the publica-
tion of the documents in which the Counsellor (of the Spanish 
Embassy) resigns loom so big, t h a t when Blum went this morn-
ing to see the President of the Republic he found him perturbed 
and in such a state of mind t h a t he said: " W h a t is being 
planned, this delivery of armaments to Spain, may mean war 
or revolution in France," and he asked t h a t an extraordinary 
Cabinet meeting should be summoned at f o u r o'clock in the 
afternoon. 

The position of the President of the Republic is shared by 
several Ministers; the Cabinet was divided in its views and 
the President of the Chamber, Herriot, has seen Blum and 
begged him to reflect, for he considers t h a t this has never been 
done before, and t h a t it may justify a de facto recognition by 
Germany and Italy of any semblance of government set up in a 
Spanish city and provide it with arms and ammunition in 
greater quantities than those France can supply. From half-
past two until a quarter to four I have been with the Prime 
Minister and another Minister a t the house of a third p a r t y ; 
" m y soul is torn," said Blum, who is as convinced as we our-

[ 22 ] 



selves are of the European significance of the struggle t h a t is 
being fought in Spain. Never have I seen him so profoundly 
moved: " I shall maintain m y position at all costs and in spite 
of all risks," he said; "we must help Spain that is friendly to us. 
H o w ? We shall see" . . . 

The resolution of the Cabinet has been to avoid delivery from 
Government to Government, but to grant us the necessary per-
mits so t h a t private industry may deliver to us and circulate 
such material as we may purchase. The method of executing 

M this and facilitating it will be decided by a Committee of Min-
isters, on which we have some of our most f a i t h f u l friends; t o -
morrow they will hold their most important and decisive meet-
ing, and they anticipate t h a t it is almost absolutely certain 
that we shall be able to take the airplanes out of the country 
after the 25th on Monday or Tuesday, and we shall organize, 
or rather I shall organize, aided by Cruz Marin and some other 
Spanish as well as some excellent French friends, the safe pass-
age of the bombs, a difficult matter, especially for one who, like 
myself, is not an astute fox, b u t we shall see what necessity 
makes one capable of. The Potez 54 machines will be con-
structed, and we shall endeavor to shorten the terms. As re-
gards all the armaments I think we can only deal with Hotch-
kiss. . . . Yours, (Signed) FERNANDO DE LOS R I O S . 

(The American Review, April, 1937.) 

One should not be surprised at this arming of the Red 
mob which was roaming the cities of Leftist Spain pil-
laging and murdering when it is recalled that this was but 
a part of the plan of Europe's sovietization. M . Yvon Del-
bos, former French Minister of Foreign Affairs, after a visit 
to Russia in 1932, wrote: "As far as Spain is specially con-

1 cerned, the Iberian Peninsula was considered by the Russian 
Government as a choice place to conduct propaganda, and as 
a natural stronghold for the Soviet domination in the Occi-
dent" (N. C. W. C. News Service, May 14, 1938). 

The truth of this statement may be seen in a leaflet re-
cently published in London by the Spanish Press Service 
which shows, in chronological form, the , , 

, , „ . , w , . , Proof of Russian and record of Russian and French interven- F r e n e h , n f e r v e n t i o n 
tion in the Spanish war, as well as the 
extent of the Russian and French intervention of the year 
1938. 

The record is divided into four parts. The chronology 
[ 23 ] 



of the first section, which is called "Russia Caused the Civil 
War," is as follows: 

1920—Spanish section of Communist International formed. 
1930—Casanellas, one of Prime Minister Dato's assassins (1921), 

and Andres Nin leaves Russia and begins intensive Communist work in 
Spain. 

1931—Jiminez Azua returns f r o m Russia to be Chairman of Com-
mittee arranging Republican Constitution. 

1932—January: First attempt to found a Communist State in 
Spain. 

1933—January: "We are engaged in organizing Workers' Soviets in 
anticipation of the crucial moment when the Workers must be the 
first to arrive on the scene and to seize power . . . " (Andres Nin, 
quoted in The Times, J a n u a r y 11). 

1934—October: First Soviet Republic in Spain founded in Asturias. 
1935—August: Report to VII Communist International Congress 

claimed for Russia the glory of Asturias revolt. 
1936—February 16: Popular Front gains power by violence and 

fraud. (Ex-President Alcala Zamora, Journal de Geneve, J a n u a r y 17, 
1937.) February 27: At a special session of the Comintern it was 
decided to send two delegates to Spain, one of whom was Bela Kun. 
One million pesetas was voted to cover the initial expense f o r the 
preliminary work of stirring up revolutionary disorder. J u l y 14: 
Soviet official informs departing American Ambassador in Moscow, 
M r . S. M . Bullitt,—"Within a fortnight Spain will be ours, and within 
10 months France as well." July 18: After months of anarchy and 
bloodshed "there remained neither parliament nor democracy, neither 
liberty nor justice, neither order nor peace. . . . The Army intervened 
to restore a discipline broken by anti-patriotic traitors and criminal 
anarchists." (Alexander Lerroux, the Arch-Radical of Spain in 
L'Illustration, J a n u a r y 30, 1937.) 

The second section of the leaflet tends to show chrono-
logically that "Russia and France were the first to inter-
vene." I t is as follows: 

July 18, 1936—Outbreak of the civil war. 
J u l y 2S—Ferdinand de los Rios (now Leftist Ambassador to the 

United States) arranges with French Popular Front Government f o r 
present and f u t u r e deliveries of war material to Spain. 

July 26—The Bureau du Profintern arranges for first International 
Brigade of Workmen Volunteers to be assembled in France. 

August 7—International Brigades begin to assemble in France. 
August 9—French Government publishes declaration of neutrality. 
August IS—M. Delbos, French Foreign Minister, informed British 

Ambassador of French Government's decision to abstain from inter-
vention, direct or indirect. Italy, Germany and Portugal suggested 

[ 24 ] 



that volunteers be included in non-intervention pact. Russia and 
France refused. 

October 17—International Brigades in Spain. 
November 6—International Brigades held Madrid against Franco. 
November 13—"It is significant t h a t almost directly after Novem-

ber 13 both Germany and Italy began to make preparations for send-
ing troops to Spain." ("Spain over Britain," a booklet written against 
the Nationalists.) 

December 23—The Confederation Nationale des Anciens Com-
battants draw French Government's attention to the fact that the flow 
of volunteers is draining "the youth of France of its most vigorous 
and most enthusiastic elements." 

Thirty-five thousand Leftist sympathizers, the number 
given by General Franco, were but the vanguard of those 
Russian, French, German, Italian, American, Polish, Eng-
lish, Czech, Bulgarian and other mer- _ » 

. . , r j Foreign Aid to the cenanes, to the number of around L e f t ¡ s t s . Men 
110,000, according to the figures given by 
the veteran newspaper man, H . Edward Knoblaugh, for 
five years the Madrid representative of the Associated 
Press, in his book Correspondent in Spain, published last 
autumn. His further statement that the foreign assistance 
to Loyalist Spain has been successfully minimized while 
that to Nationalist Spain has been grossly exaggerated is 
corroborated by Brigadier General Groves, writing in the 
London Observer. More recently, additional independent 
evidence was furnished by Wing-commander Archibald 
W. H . James, a member of the British Parliament who went 
to Spain in March, 1938, and who was given full facilities 
by the Burgos authorities to go where he pleased in Na-
tionalist territory. He declares that only about 13 per 
cent of Franco's troops are Italian and that, on the other 
hand, the principal resistance had come from the foreign-
ers among the Leftists. This agrees with the authenticated 
report giving the number of Leftist foreigners captured by 
the Nationalists. Since it is a well-known fact that rela-
tively few prisoners have been taken either by the Leftists 
or the Nationalists, the presence of 15,000 foreign Left-
ists in Nationalist prison camps in January, 1938, is some 
indication of the foreign complexion of the Leftist forces. 

In this connection also, it might be remarked that the 
[ 25 ] 



objection to the presence of the Moors in the army of 
Franco is another piece of Leftist propaganda. As a mat-
ter of fact, the Spanish Moors have as much right to fight in 
the Nationalist forces as during the World War, the Algerian 
Moors had to fight in the French army, or the Canadian or 
Australian forces had to fight in the British army. Far more 
ethical, indeed, is their presence in the Nationalist forces than 
was the arming of the liberated slave during our own civil 
conflict. Anyone who has lived long enough in Spain to 
share the affection and respect which the Spaniards them-
selves accord these people, can understand the welcome given 
them on the mainland when they arrived to join their Chris-
tian compatriots in fighting a foe which their own religion 
holds in detestation. The Mohammedan is deeply religious. 
Militant atheism is as abhorrent to him as to his Christian 
countrymen. 

So much for the man power of both Nationalists and 
Leftists. What about the material help given by the out-
side world to the regime of Madrid and Barcelona? 

Something of this is revealed by no less an authority 
than the former British Secretary, Anthony Eden, who 
admitted in the House of Commons, June 26, 1937, that 
Forei n Aid to the S ° v * e t R u s s ' a had "undoubtedly pro-
Leftists: Mottriaf v i d e d B a r c e l o n a with a large quantity of 

war material." Five months later, in 
answering David Lloyd George in Parliament, he declared 
that the result of the futile discussions of the Non-inter-
vention Committee had been to facilitate the arrival of such 
a quantity of fighting material into Government Spain that 
official Soviet Government figures showed that Spain was 
Soviet Russia's third best customer ( T h e New York Times, 
November 1, 1937). 

Even Herbert L. Matthews, of The New York Times, 
an avowed supporter of the Spanish Leftists, admitted that 
Premier Juan Negrin spoke appreciatively of the help both 
Mexico and Russia had given to the Spanish Government 
(The New York Times, February 2, 1938). 

And yet in spite of all this honorable testimony, Left-
wing propagandists continue to emphasize 'dnd to magnify 

[ 2 6 ] 



the assistance given the Nationalist force by Germany and 
Italy. Especially is this true, since France and Russia, 
seeing the handwriting on the wall, have largely withdrawn 
their help from the Spanish Leftists. The result has been 
a complete collapse of Leftist opposition. This bears out 
the contention that if Russia and France had not gone to 
the aid of the Madrid forces, the Spanish Civil War would 
have been a purely internal affair and would have ended 
long before this in a victory for the Nationalists. This view 
is shared by Sir Francis Lindley, former British ambassador 
to Spain, who states that the revolt was due to Soviet inter-
vention in the domestic affairs of the Spanish people ( T h e 
National Review, February, 1937). 

One of our former ambassadors to Spain, Irwin Laugh-
lin, says that "long before the monarchy fell the agents of 
the only state (Russia) that follows a systematic foreign 
policy of subversion had been busily a t 
work, not only in the movement to wreck f ^ " ^ h j " n d l e y 
the monarchy, but in preparing the crash ¿gj",, ¿"Hammond 
of the republic that was to follow it, and 
they had found to help them willing knaves and fools of all 
classes in the country. At my first interview, a few days after 
the proclamation of the republic, with its then provisional 
president, I took occasion to remind him and to warn him 
of this foreign invasion and its purpose. The Spanish revo-
lution was largely brought about by the operation of anti-
religious influences" ( T h e Washington Post, March 28, 
1938). 

Ogden H . Hammond, another former American ambas-
sador to Spain, says: "The army under Franco revolted 
because the " R e d " government of Spain destroyed religion, 
murdering priests, nuns and burning churches. The revolt 
was a call of the decent people of Spain for Franco to 
come from Morocco where he was stationed and to save 
Spain from anarchy" {The Providence Visitor, March 24, 
1938). 

America's war-time ambassador to Germany, James W. 
Gerard, declares that the thinking people of France desire 
a victory for the Spanish Nationalists {The New York 

[ 127 ] 



Times, April 10, 1938), whereas W. Cameron Forbes, former 
United States Ambassador to Japan who visited Spain with 
Ellery Sedgwick, compared General Franco to George Wash-
James W Gera d * n 2 t o n a n c * declares that the Soviets are 
wTcameron Forbes b e h i n d t h e Madrid-Barcelona regime 
Ellery Sedgwick that Moscow's aim is to gain con-

trol first of Spain, then France and 
finally the United States. This last statement is borne 
out by the account given of the causes of the war in 
Spain by Eugene J . Young, Cable Editor of The New York 
Times, in his recent book Looking Behind the Censorships. 
He also declares that the Spanish War had its origin in the 
Communist agitation which provoked a resistance strong 
enough that it finally expressed itself in open warfare. 

What a different picture is all this highly reputable 
evidence from the reports contained in the secular press 
from the outset of the crisis. A splendid analysis of this 
The American Press

 h i g h l ? objectionable handling of the 
Spanish news by the American press was 

given by the Rev. Dr. Joseph F. Thorning before the Amer-
ican Catholic Historical Association, December 29, 1937, in 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

The address was reported extensively in The New York 
Times of December 30th, but the most convincing item of 
evidence contained was not published because the publisher 
of The New York Times refused to place on record the 
photostatic copy of two telegrams which indicate that the 
Times of London had been the victim of one of its propagan-
dizing reporters. 

The story is this: On April 28, 1937, Mr. G. L. Steer 
sent as a telegram to the Times of London, a fabricated 
story of the destruction of Guernica, the so-called Holy 
The Myth of City of the Basques, and asked not only 
Guernica that the dispatch be featured in the news 

columns, but that editorials should de-
nounce what he described as the destruction of the city 
by German aviators and the mass murder of its citizens by 
the forces of Franco. The Times of London did as it was 
requested. The New York Times then thundered its de-

[ 28 ] 



nunciations, not only once but three times, of the National-
ists. But on May 4, the Times of London sent a tele-
gram to Mr. Steer to the effect that it was known that his 
story was without foundation. These are the two tele-
grams that the publisher of The New York Times refused 
to publish in their photostat appearance. Why? Because, 
although since May 4, 1937, both the Times of London 
and The New York Times were in possession of the facts 
regarding Guernica and knew that public sentiment had 
been aroused against the Nationalists because of this false 
atrocity story, these two papers had taken no steps to deny it 
until December 26, 1937, more than seven months after 
they had the correct information, and only three days be-
fore the telegrams had been made public by Dr. Thorning. 
And yet this falsehood was repeated May 1, 1938, in The 
New York Times under the signature of Herbert L. 
Matthews writing from Barcelona, April 30, despite the 
fact also that Eyre and Spottiswood of London has pub-
lished the findings of a Commission appointed by the Na-
tionalist government to investigate the course of Guer-
nica's destruction. The English translation carries the 
foreword of Sir Arnold Wilson, M.P., and substantiates 
irrefutably the charge that the retreating Leftist army de-
stroyed the city before the arrival of the Nationalists. The 
eminent British soldier, Brigadier General Percy R. C. 
Groves, says it was impossible that Guernica could have 
been destroyed from the air (N. C. W. C. News Service, 
April 8, 1938). 

I t might be of interest also to note that the so-called 
"photographs of bombed Guernica" were pictures of Ver-
dun in 1917; likewise were the photographs of dead chil-
dren, complete with morgue numbers, 
which were broadcast to American P i c t u r e s o f Verdun 
newspapers, the pictures of dead French Authentic 6 0 '' 
children of the World War period. This Photographs 
falsehood was repeated in the April, 
1938, issue of Ken over the signature of William L. Hopson, 
who also recounts the ridiculous story of the supposed Red 
airman who after being captured by the Nationalists had his 

[ 31 ] 



body, with the exception of its head, cut to pieces. The re-
mains in this condition were supposed to have been dropped 
over his home drome by a Nationalist parachute. Knoblaugh 
exposed the falsity of this atrocity story in his book by re-
vealing that the box which contained the remains was traced 
to a Madrid department store and the dismembered body 
was identified as that of a Spanish workingman killed near 
Madrid during a bombardment. 

The supposed massacre of Badajos is another example 
of the misinformation that has been handed out by the sec-
ular press to an unsuspecting reading public. The story is 
ii .1 , _ , . this: When the Nationalists took this Myth or Badajos . 

strategic railway center early m the war, 
they were reported as having massacred thousands of its citi-
zens, and the purported story was given over the signature of 
N . Reynolds Packard, United Press correspondent. Later 
not only did Mr. Packard indignantly deny that he had writ-
ten or filed this piece of news but it was discovered that there 
had been no massacre at all at Badajoz. Nevertheless, the 
American press joined in the widespread denunciation of the 
"atrocities." Writing in the April, 1937, issue of The Nine-
teenth Century, Douglas Jerrold says: "The 'massacre' of 
Badajos I knew to be a lie, because it was announced in the 
French press of the Left two days before Badajos fell." He 
adds that this example is "only one in an unbroken series of 
deliberately invented fictions which have been foisted on the 
English and American public." One of the papers referred 
to by Mr. Jerrold was the Communist organ L'Humanité 
of Paris. The whole falsehood was exposed by Major 
McNeill-Moss in his thrilling story The Siege of the Alcazar. 
Nevertheless, John Gunther in his Inside Europe, even in the 
revised edition, repeats blandly this stupid story. 

One of the major tragedies of the war has been the rape 
of the Basque children. I t is inconceivable that propa-
Ra of the gandists for any cause, however worthy 
Basque Children t i l m i S h t t h i n k t o be, should go to 

such lengths to influence public opin-
ion as did the heartless propagandists in this instance. 
Conservative estimates of French and English social work-

n o J 



ers place the total of these children who were torn from 
home and country at twenty-five thousand; other repu-
table sources place the number as high as one hundred 
thousand. When the Nationalists were closing in on Bil-
bao, thousands of these little ones were herded on unknown 
ships, like cattle, deprived even of identification, to be sent 
to some unknown destination, undoubtedly Russia. Today, 
hundreds of parents are besieging the Nationalist author-
ities for news of their children, only to be told that if they 
are not in England, France, or in Belgium there is no record 
of them. A relatively small number have been returned to 
their parents, often after pressure has been brought to bear 
upon the agencies holding the children. 

Paul McGuire writes in the America of April 9, 1938: 
On one morning in Bilbao, hundreds of mothers came t o 

Monsignor Antoniutti's Secretariat to ask f o r their children. 
More than half had not even heard of their children since they 
were sent away. They did not know who had taken them, 
where they had gone. I am afraid we must assume t h a t they 
are in Russia or in Mexico, for the children in the other coun-
tries have been now listed. 

At Gijon, when the Nationalists took the town, they found 
thousands of cards relating to the children sent f r o m there. 
No effort had been made to complete the necessary details on 
the cards. Each, had only a number and a child's Christian 
n a m e ; no surname, no name of parent, no address, no record 
of the ship on which it was sent, no record of the place to 
which it was sent. Nothing could better illustrate the callous 
cynicism of the affair. I t is a fair assumption t h a t there was 
complete indifference to the final f a t e of the children. All t h a t 
was cared f o r was to use them as propaganda. . . . 

While I have been writing, I have had before me the memory 
of a woman who came to Monsignor Antoniutti a t Bilbao. All 
five of her children were gone, irrevocably. Let the Catholic 
mothers, let all the mothers of America remember her. 
I t is now known that there was no starvation in Bilbao 

nor were there any children killed by the Nationalists. A 
food shortage did threaten and this was made one excuse 
for the dispatch of the children, not for their own good but 
for the comfort of the Red soldiery. To effect this end a 
terroristic campaign was kept up against the mothers. 
Their children were to be slaughtered by the Moors, if 

[ 31 ] 



they did not send them into safety! " I t needed strength 
of will and more," writes Paul McGuire, "it needed love 
and trust in God to withstand that sort of thing. I always 
regard it as an extraordinary testimony to the Christian 
mothers and fathers of Vizcaya that the majority resisted" 
(America, April 9, 1938). There was one terrible danger 
the Basque children faced who were not sent away from 
Bilbao. But it did not come from the Moors or from Gen-
eral Franco. 

Aware that Bilbao could not hold out much longer the 
Reds gave vent to their wanton lust for destruction and 
wrecked the water supply several weeks before the Na-
tionalists took the city. A foul, commercial river was the 
only source of water for Bilbao's thousands. Typhus was 
just setting in when the city surrendered. I t was to be ex-
pected that the Leftist propagandists in America would sup-
press this bit of damaging evidence; it was also passed over 
in silence by the American press, the Methodist and the Epis-
copal bishops, the Secretary of State, and those others who 
later were to become articulate over Barcelona. 

But beyond the purpose of food curtailment in sending 
the children away from the Basque country was the more sin-
ister one of propaganda. Five hundred of the children were 
Bo Ch'ld destined for this country and would 
in Hollywood f e n have arrived here only that the true pur-

pose of the exodus was exposed, chiefly 
through the efforts of His Eminence, the Cardinal Archbishop 
of Boston. Unfortunately, however, they were sent to Mex-
ico. That they were to be used for propaganda purposes in 
this country is proved by the presence this year in Hollywood 
of two of the children who had been brought from Mexico to 
stir sympathy for the Leftists. Protest against so heartless 
an exhibition was made by the Junípero Serra Council of the 
Knights of Columbus to the Attorney General of the United 
States and to the two United States senators from California. 
I t was argued that these children are being held in custody 
"without consent of parents, natural guardians, rights of 
kindred, legal guardians under Basque law, or consent of the 
present de jacto government replacing the autonomous 

[ 32 ] 



Basque government" (N. C. W. C. News Service, March 19, 
1938). 

The almost unbelievable treatment of these helpless 
little ones in Mexico is given by Peter Arrupe, S.J., former 
pupil of the Leftist Spanish premier at 
the National University of Madrid, in Basque Children 
the America of May 21, 1938. „ n d R™"' 

Even more horrible, perhaps, is the 
fate of the unknown thousands who are in Russia. Indeed, 
it is not rash to believe that they will be brought up as fu-
ture atheistic propagandists in Spanish-speaking countries. 
In the Daily Worker of May 1,1938, it was revealed that one 
hundred of these child refugees were to have been the "hon-
ored guests of the whole Soviet people" at the May Day festi-
vals in Moscow. 

The following statement of Captain John Eoghan Kelly— 
a Protestant, it should be noted—is worthy of being quoted 
in full: 

If Spain cannot be conquered by force and terror, it can be 
destroyed later by poison; so reason the masters in Moscow 
and they have put in effect a plan as deadly as inoculating the 
body of an enemy with cancer. For Communism is a cancer, 
to be fought as such. On November 27, 1937, 1,600 Spanish 
children arrived in Leningrad, the last contingent of 10,000 
mostly boys between the ages of twelve and fourteen, shipped 
f r o m Valencia during the past four months. The youngsters 
are divided into groups and sent to various institutions or camps 
near the great Soviet cities. T h e largest group, numbering over 
3,000 is in a former prison camp near Moscow. The Soviet 
government has allotted two million rubles as the first of a series 
of sums for the support of these children during their educa-
tion in Communism. 180 instructors, skilled in the Spanish 
language and in child psychology, have been assigned to their 
care. After a careful grounding in Russian and in atheism, 
the young students will receive a thorough education in Com-
munism. On attaining manhood they will be turned loose, in 
the Spanish-speaking nations and elsewhere, to carry the deadly 
virus of Communism. Cut off f r o m family and f r o m God, 
they may yet prove the most deadly weapon in the devil's 
arsenal of Moscow. 

Perhaps the most astounding example of Leftist propa-
gandist success is the almost universal belief that there 

[ 3 3 ] 



exists a government in Spain other than that of General 
Franco's. The newspapers have kept up the fiction, taking 
sides openly in favor of the Reds by calling them "Loyal-

ists," as Fletcher Pratt points out in 
his article "Hot-Air Castles in Spain" 
in the April, 1938, issue of The Amer-
ican Mercury. The nonexistence of 
any government to which the Reds can 

be "loyal" is demonstrated conclusively by Irwin Laughlin: 
. . . the movement which is properly called "Nationalistic"— 
for there was no longer an administration worthy of the 
name of "duly elected Government"—and this protesting mani-
festation was soon joined b y all the respectable parties in the 
country. Even the intellectuals, who had so greatly contrib-
uted to the success of the republican movement, and the more 
moderate men outstanding in the formation of the republican 
state, could no longer stomach the excesses of the extremists of 
the Left, and have practically all abjured the so-called Govern-
ment, even when they have not openly joined its militant op-
ponents. Among them I mention only the Provisional Presi-
dent and first elected President of the Republic, who was p u t out 
by the Communists when they usurped and destroyed the duly 
elected Government; the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the first 
Cabinet who was repeatedly in office until the Communistic 
regime began; the first Ambassador to the United States; the 
first Ambassador to Great Britain; and Professor Unamuno, 
the distinguished and widely known intellectual of the Uni-
versity of Salamanca. . . . Arnold Lunn in his book Spanish 
Rehearsal says t h a t Red atrocities were the cause and not the 
consequences of the Nationalist rising. T h a t is merely a state-
ment of established fact, and I may add t h a t the immediate 
occasion for the epiphany of this protesting movement was 
the brutal murder of a moderate member of the Cortes in the 
Opposition, Senor Calvo Sotelo, who, in spite of his legal im-
munity from arrest as a legislator, was dragged at night f r o m his 
own house b y Government agents and done to death in the o u t -
skirts of Madrid. The decency of Spain could stand no more. 

The military rising t h a t followed was not a rebellion against 
established Government—good or bad—but an instinctive re-
action f o r self-preservation of people who were bent on restor-
ing social order when they saw t h a t the Government had 
crumbled and was powerless to control the conflagration it had 
lighted. And we must remember t h a t at the bottom of all this 
was an element that has shown itself capable of bestial ex-
cesses, animated by a fierce hatred of religion and all its manifes-
t a t i o n s — ( N . C. W. C. News Service, March 28, 1938.) 

No Government in 
Spain Other Than 
That of 
General Franco's 

[ 34 ] 



Without going into the history of the Spanish Republic 
it should be stated that in few respects it resembled the 
American Republic. The Spanish Republic of 1931 was 
not democratic in origin, nor in its con-
stitution or functioning. The founda- » ^ m e r i c « . . " 
tion of this Republic was the 1930 con- Republic 
spiracy of San Sebastian, which produced 
the abortive revolution of the same year and the downfall of 
the monarchy in 1931. The constitution was enacted by a 
Cortes, which was not representative of the nation, but chosen 
by electors who in turn had been intimidated by a reign of 
terror which increased in intensity from April, 1931. 
Nevertheless, the people accepted the constitution in the 
belief that they could amend the articles which violated the 
rights of conscience and other liberties. But they were dis-
appointed. Additional anti-democratic legislation was voted 
in until the President, Alcalá Zamora—now hiding in Paris 
from the Madrid-Barcelona Reds—was obliged by popular 
insistence to dissolve the Cortes and call for new elections. 
Although the majority of the newly-elected members pledged 
to amend the constitution the opposition of the minority was 
so great that the anti-democratic forces began their agitation 
to overthrow the government. The situation therefrom was 
adequately described by William F. Montavon, Head of the 
Legal Department of the National Catholic Welfare Confer-
ence, in The Washington Post of February 3, 1938: 

President Alcalá Zamora, violating the constitution, dissolved 
the Cortes to prevent the debate on constitutional amendment. 
He did more. He dismissed the cabinet approved by the Cortes 
and over protest of the majority appointed a prime minister to 
control and manipulate the election of a, new Parliament, and 
especially to prevent the election of advocates of amendment. 

T i e Leftist parties, not strong enough to stand on their own 
legs, adopted the strategy of the Popular Front, invented by 
the Comintern at its 1935 session in Moscow. 

Official returns of the February, 1936, election, published 
throughout the world, showed t h a t the C. E. D. A. (Rightist 
coalition) under the leadership of Gil Robles, polled 4,570,744 
votes and the Popular F r o n t polled 4,356,559 votes and the 
Center party and the Basque Nationalists together both op-
posed to the Popular Front, polled 481,207 votes. 

Briefly, the facts are these: The cabinet was forced to re-
[ 35 ] 



sign before the credentials of newly elected members had been 
passed on by the Cortes. A new ministry, approved by the 
Popular Front, was named by Alcalá Zamora and the Popular 
Front was placed in control of the organization of Parliament. 
A large number of district elections were rejected by the P o p -
ular Front credentials committee. 

The country was put under martial law, free speech and free 
assembly were suppressed, anarchists were permitted to create 
a reign of terror. It was announced by the Popular Front min-
istry t h a t elections had been held in disputed districts and t h a t 
the final result of the elections gave to the Popular Front 256 
seats in the Parliament, to the C. E. D. A. 123 seats, to three 
anti-republican parties 23 seats and to the Center SS seats. 

I t is to be noted t h a t in this Cortes the extremists, Com-
munists on the L e f t and anti-republicans on the Right, had equal 
representation. 

Dissensions arose in the Popular Front. Anarchists de-
nounced the ministry and President Azafia as bourgeois. The 
new government could not function without martial law, the 
suppression of free speech and assembly and was utterly power-
less to preserve order. Three months of turmoil and crime ended 
in the assassination of the head of the anti-revolutionary parties 
in the Cortes, on J u l y 13, 1936. The Popular F r o n t even with 
its great majority in the Parliament refused to face the situa-
tion thus created. The Cortes recessed. There was no compe-
tent government in Spain. The civil war resulted. 

One searches in vain f o r any evidence of true democracy in 
Spain, f r o m the date of the San Sebastian Pact in 1930 down 
to the meeting of this handful of parliamentarians in Barcelona 
on February 1, 1938. 

H a d the Leftist minority been willing to listen to the people 
of Spain, to respect the rights which civilized peoples respect 
everywhere, the Spanish nation would have been spared the 
horrors of civil war and civilization the dangers of an inter-
national conflict. 
Much has been said in the American press about the sev-

eral plebiscites which have been held in Germany under 
the regime of Hitler. They are mild when 

Elections of compared with the Spanish February, 
February, 1936 1936, elections. Armed bands surround-

ed the polling booths, challenging and 
bullying the people into voting for "X"—the extreme Left. 
Additional pertinent information on this point is given by 
Doctor von Vollenhoven, the former ambassador of Holland 
at Madrid: 

[ 36 ] 



Another system was to withdraw all the police from the 
streets; and the non-Red elements stayed at home rather than 
take the chance of receiving a thrashing or being shot at. In 
other places, the president of the voting bureau, on realizing t h a t 
the voting was not going as he desired, smashed the glass urn 
containing the votes, with the purpose of later "leading" the 
elections more satisfactorily to himself. . . . I n many districts, 
e. g., Cuenca, Communists had destroyed the voting urns . . . 
and had them refilled with votes from the " L e f t . " . . . In 
order to prepare f o r the elections, the Government had replaced 
all high officials with its own creatures, and on February 1st 
it had dismissed in addition 1,000 urban councils and replaced 
them with others, which were to "assist" the Government . . . 
voters of the L e f t went f r o m district to district and recorded 
their votes a number of times. . . . The parties of the L e f t 
brought in voting papers with names of people who were dead. 
. . . I t is abundantly clear t h a t this Government has not title to 
legitimacy whatever.—(The Universe, London, April 14, 1938.) 
The Leftist sympathizers cannot contend that although 

not originally a government de jure the Madrid-Barcelona 
regime has constituted itself a government de facto, in the 
same way that General Franco has ^ 
done in the Spain of the Nationalists. |_eftfst Spain ' 
From the very beginning the Leftist 
officials were either unwilling or unable to maintain law and 
order. As a matter of fact not only did the Madrid offi-
cials fail to prevent but they directed the Civil Guards to 
interfere in no way in the outrages which became a daily oc-
currence all over Spain. In failing to protect life, liberty or 
property, the officials proved to the world that there was no 
Spanish Government either de jure or de facto. 

Nor has there been a Government either de jure or de 
facto since the war broke out. There is a Red army sup-
ported by Red propaganda and there have been the senseless 
gestures of a supposed Cortes, meeting now and then. But 
with no attempt at interference with these meetings, the at-
tendance has been twenty per cent or less of the total num-
ber elected in 1936. The group remains in session only 
for a few minutes, an address by the so-called government 
follows, and then comes a viva voce ratification of the dis-
bursements of public funds made since the last session with-
out legislative approval. Many of the eighty per cent absen-

[ 37 ] 



tees are in exile; a majority repudiate the Negrin "govern-
ment." Red propaganda, however, has kept alive the fic-
tion of a "real government" of Spain, for otherwise it would 
have to acknowledge that the anarchy which obtained in 
the early summer of 1936 gave General Franco every moral 
right to oppose by force those elements which were at once 
anti-democratic, anti-National and anti-Christian. 

The intelligence of the American people is done no serv-
ice by those who justify their half-hearted support of 
General Franco by saying that the Nationalists merely con-

f Fran stitute the lesser of two evils, the infer-
to Revolt e n c e being that General Franco is a Fas-

cist, and on that score should also be 
opposed. If one may believe the Generalissimo, and there 
is no reason for not believing him, the following statements 
are to the point. On February 19, 1937, he declared: 

The composition of the forces fighting on the Nationalist 
side clearly shows t h a t the movement is not one that can be 
called exclusively Fascist. . . . The fact is t h a t our enemies, 
the Bolshevists, call us Fascists as an accusation to arouse the 
animosity or coolness of attitude of some countries in which the 
Liberal tradition lives on. But they are well aware that in 
doing so they are deliberately misrepresenting the facts. 

On January 19, 1937, Franco said: 
This new Spain will represent a great national family, one 

without masters or vassals, without poor or potentate. . . . We 
want a fraternal Spain, an industrious and working Spain, where 
parasites can find no lodging. A Spain without chains and 
tyrannies: a nation without Marxism and Communism; a State 
for the people and not a people for the State (The Catholic 
Transcript, March 3, 1938). 
General Franco's final words are worthy of special no-

tice: The only possible justification for attributing Fascism 
to the Nationalists is their acceptance of Italian and Ger-
Ge e I Franco m a n ^ a t as it may, this is 
No Fascist ^ business of the Spaniards and it 

does not necessarily compromise them in 
their political idealogy, no more than the nature of the 
foreign help accepted in the American War of Independ-
ence determined the nature of the philosophy which went 
into the making of the United States. One of the most 

[ 3 8 ] 



objective treatments of General Franco's character is that 
of Professor Robert Davis, of Middlebury College, Middle-
bury, Vt. (New York Herald Tribune, March 25, 1938), 
in which he refutes the generally accepted theory that 
Franco is a n o t h e r Hitler or Mussolini. Indeed, the 
charge of Fascism against Franco and the Nationalists is 
but part of the campaign of Left-wingers to defend Com-
munism against the anti-Communist bloc. The "Fascism" 
of Franco is another one of those propaganda words which 
with "democracy," another prize in the hands only of the 
radicals, may be placed in the same category which Fletcher 
Pratt calls " a booby-trap for gullible Anglo-Saxons." 

The recent legislation passed by the Nationalist Govern-
ment contained in the Manifesto to the Spanish People of 
February 2, 1938, and the Labor Statute of March 9, 1938, 
shows that the Nationalist Government is based on a system 
of Vertical Syndicates, which is removed both from Fascism 
and from Communism. 

No one can read the moving letter of the Spanish Bish-
ops without realizing that Communism brought the Span-
ish people to their present condition. Hatred of religion only 
_ H , could have been responsible for the out-
The Number , . , . , . , 
0 f S | a | . n rages on persons and things which varied 

in intensity but which continued, never-
theless, in some degree all during the time in those places 
controlled by the Leftists. The Osservatore Romano has pub-
lished a list of 1,324 religious who are known definitely to have 
been slain in Red territory. To this list must be added the 
6,000 diocesan priests, the number given by Cardinal Goma 
of Toledo, the religious orders of women, the laity—perhaps 
the exact number of the latter will never be ascertained—and 
those other orders of men, such as the Dominicans and Fran-
ciscans, the verified number of whose slain members is not 
available at this writing. Some authorities declare that 
400,000 would be a conservative estimate of those who were 
put to death because they would not raise the clenched fist 
and curse the Saviour. Douglas Jerrold in his Georgian Ad-
venture states that how many thousand people were mur-
dered will be never known. He says: 

r 3 9 1 



One thing is certain, in Malaga, as in Madrid, there were no 
trials. The same was, and still is, true of Barcelona. These 
things have not been done in secret, b u t before the eyes of the 
world. In any town in Spain you can meet eye-witnesses and 
refugees f r o m these cities, the fortunate few who escaped through 
the kindness of some foreign power, but seldom through the 
British, and never through the French Embassy (p. 398). 
All this is corroborated by a recent statement coming 

from a different but equally reliable source. Dr. Felix 
Schlayer, Norwegian Consul at Madrid, states that between 
35,000 and 40,000 people were killed at Madrid during the 
first six months of the war and that the "criminals" were not 
always "uncontrollable," as alleged by the Government, but 
in many cases the Government was directly responsible for 
these crimes. He estimates the total number of victims in 
Red Spain at more than 300,000. When the war broke out, 
Dr. Schlayer was the only Norwegian official in Madrid and 
the direction of the Norwegian Embassy was turned over to 
him. From then until the summer of 1937, when he had to 
flee from Madrid to escape death, he was a close observer of 
what he calls the "bloody tyranny of the Reds." On many 
occasions, he says, he witnessed the famous "promenades," 
when a little group of Bolshevists conducted groups of the 
nobility, the bourgeoisie, women and children outside of the 
city to execute them (N. C. W. C. News Service, June 20, 
1938). 

Three special correspondents of French metropolitan 
dailies—Figaro and Le Matin of Paris, and Le Nouvelliste 
_ . , de Lyon—are among the latest wit-
Devastation of i ,, , . . . , , 
the Reds nesses to the devastation wrought by the 

Reds as evidenced in the cities liberated 
by the Nationalists. I t is unnecessary to mention the de-
struction of national and religious monuments, many of them 
of the most priceless artistic value, libraries, art objects and 
scientific instruments. Juan de la Palma in El Heraldo de 
Aragon of April 23, 1938, describes the rains, which the Na-
tionalists found when they entered Fortosa, of the once fa-
mous astronomical observatory. Instruments of great value 
had been destroyed when the Reds discovered that the Na-
tionalists were approaching the city. The Jesuits who 

[ 40 ] 



had been in charge of the observatory had been dragged 
off to Barcelona. 

Had the revolt of April, 1936, and the one that was 
planned for the late summer of the same year, succeeded 
the whole of Spain today would be as desolate as that 
part which fell into the hands of the Leftists in July, 1936. 
Confirmation of this statement may be had in the as yet 
undisputed facts given by the distinguished member of the 
Institute of France, M. Jacques Bardoux, in the Revue 
des Deux Monies of October 1, 1937. 

The question has been asked, why should a people 
essentially Catholic give themselves over to such hatred 
of religion or at least why did they allow the forces of anti-
religion to gain such headway that it was 
necessary to resort to a military uprising , / D , d t h e Forces 
. , , . , ' of Irreligion Make to save themselves from atheism and to s u e (, Headway? 
restore order? As Robert Sencourt, 
former professor in the University of Lisbon and now Vice-
Dean of the Faculty of Arts in the University of Egypt, says 
in The Catholic World of May, 1938, the Church was at-
tacked in Spain because it was uncompromising, and often 
rightly so, first toward the monarchy, then toward liberalism, 
and finally toward the atheistic Communism of the present 
day. For a long time, there were two camps in Spain, each 
determined upon the other's destruction, and those camps 
were the Church and the liberalistic tendencies which often 
meant denial of the Faith. The Church herself was loved be-
cause she was poor, industrious and enterprising, a fact which 
is brought out definitely by the Anglican Professor, Allison 
Peers, of the University of London, who says "If the Church 
in Spain was unpopular, it was not among the orphans, the 
sick or the hungry." Indeed, most of the teaching and most 
of the charitable work was in the hands of the Church. Pro-
verbial Anglo-Saxon disdain for anything Spanish, a relic of 
the sixteenth-century bitterness between Philip I I and Eliza-
beth, is greatly responsible for the current misconceptions 
regarding the educational and charitable institutions of 
the Iberian peninsula. Robert Sencourt in his Spain's Ordeal 
disproves the fable of the Church's wealth and shows up the 

[ 4 1 1 



fallacy of the argument that the present situation is a result 
of "the large number of illiterates in Spain." He also points 
out that whatever anti-clericalism there was in Spain was the 
result of the propaganda broadcast by those who were in 
reality anti-God. 

And yet if the Church was so loved why was it not de-
fended when attacked? An answer may be found to this in 
several facts: the anti-clerical government gave directions 

that the mobs were not to be restrained 
clthoiks Defend w h e n t h e y w e r e b u r n i n g a n d looting the 
the Church? property of the Church; because the les-

son of Christian nonresistance and obe-
dience to authority—both taught by the Church—had de-
veloped in the faithful a spirit of passivity, fatal in this case; 
and finally because the faithful feared for their lives since 
they knew the violence with which such things are done in 
Spain. I t was only in the end did they turn to the army for 
help. 

Whenever anarchy was making things possible in Spain (contin-
ues Robert Sencourt) it had been the army, with the armed civil 
guard, which had restored order, and kept the country together. I t 
was to the army t h a t the Catholics turned to vindicate their free-
dom. . . . At this point they saved themselves by alliance with the 
army, and when t h a t did not shield them with its strength, they 
faced death praying for forgiveness of their enemies. There is no 
proof of faults against the clergy, but such as are common to m e n ; 
and no one can be surprised if their exemplary lives awoke hostility 
f r o m immoral and violent forces, organized for the destruction of 
religion. Catholics need not apologize f o r their religion be-
cause Spain produced martyrs and crusaders. Not Pharisaism, 
b u t honor and thankfulness is what we owe to Spanish Catho-
lics: they are different from us, but they have not less the 
dignity of heroes (The Catholic World, May, 1938, p. 142). 

These are the people who have been accused of "atroc-
ities" which have existed only in the minds of the Leftist 
propagandists. Just as there was no massacre at Badajoz 
and no bombing of Guernica, just as there was no machine-
gunning of the residents of Malaga, who were reported 
to be fleeing along the coast road from the city as it fell 
into Nationalist hands, neither have there been any au-

[ 4 2 1 



thenticated atrocities on the Nationalist side. The stories 
which have been circulating are so fantastic that it is 
difficult to understand why intelligent people should give 
them any credence. Undoubtedly 
there have been individual excesses Side" 
attendant upon military hostilities. But 
in no sense could these be construed as similar to those 
of the Soviet type of wholesale liquidations. And yet 
there are those who pretend objectivity by blandly as-
serting there have been atrocities on both sides. They ad-
mit that the Leftists have acknowledged "excesses in the be-
ginning," usually on the plea that it was quite impossible 
to handle the mob—an unwitting testimony of the inability 
of the Red authorities to govern—but they cannot explain 
away the atrocities which have been going on in Barcelona, 
Valencia, Lerida, Teruel, Madrid, and in the thousands of 
villages and hamlets in the Spain of the Leftists. The out-
rages are generally of a religious nature. 

Colonel Turner states that in all his travels in Nationalist 
Spain he found no evidence of any actual atrocities committed 
by the troops of General Franco. 

"Some Christian democracies—less Christian than demo-
cratic—have not succeeded in comprehending this sublime 
page of the Spanish religious persecution, which with its 
thousands of martyrs, is among the most glorious that the 
Church has suffered," said General Franco at Zaragoza in 
April, 1938. "Not an abjuration, not an apostasy, not a 
word of rancor. They had only generous forgiveness before 
death" ( N . C. W. C. News Service, May 2, 1938). 

The unwillingness of non-Catholic religious bodies and 
leaders to acknowledge this truth is an evidence of their 
un-Christian mentality, declared the Most Reverend John 
T . McNicholas, O.P., Archbishop of Cincinnati, April 17, 
1938. Pointing out that it is impossible to find perfection 
in everything that has been done by the Nationalists, His 
Excellency declared that the Christians of the world, 
nevertheless, should approve of the struggle in Spain for the 
things of God, and of His divine and natural law. Messages 
of sympathy have been dispatched by non-Catholic denomi-

[ 43 ] 



nations in America to sufferers in Germany and elsewhere 
but no word of courage or hope has been sent to their Chris-
tian brethren in Spain. Instead, there has been a certain 
amount of open alliance with the anti-Christian forces which 
are attempting to destroy Christianity. In a letter signed by 
Guy Emery Shipler, Editor of The Churchman, Protestant 
religious journal, which was circulated to members of the 
Seventy-fifth Congress, relative to the arms embargo, Cath-
olics are vigorously attacked and Protestants are urged to 
unite in defense of Leftist Spain ( N . C. W. C. News Service, 
May 16, 1938). 

But the Protestant sects of America have not been 
alone in their apathy and bias. I t is a regrettable fact 
that world Jewry has been openly hostile to the Spanish 

Nationalists, and this in spite of the 
S aine W S ° n fact that there has been no authenti-

cated account of antipathy to the Jews 
in Nationalist Spain. If in the end—and it is to be hoped 
this will not be — there should be any attempt a t re-
prisals against the Spanish Jews, because of the violent anti-
Franco propaganda and material assistance given the ene-
mies of the Nationalists by the Jews in practically every 
country of the world, then it should be remembered that 
international Jewry was the first to pick up the gauntlet 
in the Spanish crisis. According to The American Hebrew 
(May 6, 1938), thirty-five thousand Jews entered the Inter-
national Brigade in defense of the Leftists. 

As yet the influence of Freemasonry in the crusade 
against Franco cannot be gauged accurately. But certain in-
dications of an anti-Masonic movement in Nationalist Spain 
seems to bear out the contentions of Judge Pierre Crabitfcs, 
in his Unhappy Spain, that Freemasonry of the Grand 
Orient type played no unimportant part in preparing the 

_ stage for the tragedy of Spain. What 
The Freemasons , . , .. , r , , . 
and Spain part international Freemasonry has had 

in the attempt to destroy Spanish Ca-
tholicism, and with it all religion in Spain, is something that 
soon may be revealed. 

But more disturbing than all this is the widespread 
[ 44 ] 



ignorance among Catholics of the issues at stake. And 
it is positively shocking to see some allowing their apathy 
and their ignorance to carry them into 
absurdities of speech when the subject of 
the Spanish conflict is being discussed, the Spanish S t̂ua»^« 
Some have made themselves ridiculous 
by upholding the Madrid Government and by repeating 
charges that have been disposed of time after time. Fortu-
nately, American Catholicism has been spared the humiliation 
which has come to many French Catholics because of the 
unfortunate attitude which some of their co-religionists 
have adopted towards Spain. But, nevertheless, the Church 
in America has its Westbrook Pegler, columnist and self-
styled Catholic, who admits he knows little about Spain, 
yet who declares the wholesale slaughter of clergy and 
laity "seems but natural" since "the religious were agents of 
an institution which the people had learned to hate," and its 
Kathleen Norris who makes the pitiful statement that 
"The issue is not between Christian ideals and the Red rule 
of Russia," given in the stupidly conceived Leftist propa-
ganda brochure Writers Take Sides, issued by the radical 
League of American Writers. Charity suggests that such 
Catholics be regarded as victims of this '«sidious propaganda 
which attempts to split the Catholic group on matters hav-
ing a direct bearing on their faith. Undoubtedly, they do 
not realize that the Catholic who bends backward in the inter-
pretation of the Spanish War in order to appear detached 
and objective furnishes ammunition for the enemies of 
the Church to be used against her and themselves in the 
last analysis. 

While Kathleen Norris was allowing herself to be ex-
ploited by the so-called League of American Writers, Ger-
trude Atherton, well-known author, refused to be duped 
into identifying Franco with Fascism. 

As I was perfectly aware that the word democracy in Spain 
at the present moment is a euphemism for Communism (she de-
clared), I wrote them a rather hot letter, telling them exactly 
what I thought of them and declaring for Franco. . . . No doubt 
they hoped to 'show me up,' but unwittingly they have given 
me the place of honor—as the only one out of 418 more or less 

[ 45 ] 



distinguished writers (less, for the most part) who did not fall 
for Spanish propaganda—the most subtle, persuasive and per-
sistent with which this country has been flooded since the World 
War. As my own mail has been cluttered up with it, I am able 
to realize how and why my fellow scribes have succumbed to its 
charms. (N. C. W. C. News Service, J u n e 4, 1936.) 
Because Lenin's maxim that " T r u t h is a bourgeois virtue" 

is the guiding principle for Leftist propaganda, as well 
as for the Soviet press, it is necessary that we know the 
importance of propaganda. In fact so important is it that 
the General Staff of the United States Army set aside one 
section of the G-2 of the Military Intelligence to deal entire-
ly with propaganda in war time. At present, Communists 
are making constant efforts to distribute subversive propa-
ganda in American Army and Navy establishments, particu-
larly in the larger cities, whereas they publish papers for 
various national guard workers, vessels and naval bases. 
One of their chief methods to undermine the national 
defense is through the Oxford pledge, otherwise known as 
the slacker's oath; those who take this pledge swear not 
to defend the United States in case of war. At a recent 
Senate investigation in Washington, Carl Ross, head of 
the Young Communist League, when asked by Senator 
Lee, of Oklahoma, if he would bear arms for the United 
States in case of war against Russia refused to answer. 
He could not answer because the first loyalty of every 
Communist is to Moscow. Representative Hoffman, on 
the floor of the House of Representatives, April 27, 1938, 
denounced the Young America movement and its quasi-
auxiliary, the American Youth Congress as 

a disguise for the most dastardly attack ever perpetrated on the 
American constitutional government. The tragedy of it is that 
too few of these zealous young Americans realize that they are 
being used as f r o n t and shock troops for a vicious world revolu-
tionary movement concocted and executed by a group of God-
denying and God-defying men whose philosophies are those of 
Karl Marx, Frederick Ingalls, Nicolai Lenin, and Dictator Stalin, 
of Russia—men who are the sworn enemies of what we today 
term "Americanism"—American ideals and traditions (Con-
gressional Record, April 28, 1938). 
Several months ago the Communist Party issued a 

[ 4 6 ] 



general order for all members eligible to join the National 
Guard or the R.O.T.C. for two principal reasons: to learn 
military tactics and science, particularly the nomenclature 
•of the rifle and machine gun so that there will be a trained 
Communist military nucleus to obey the will of the Third 
International, and secondly to establish, if possible, Com-
munist cells in the Regular Army, National Guard and 
R.O.T.C. This is synonymous with treason. As regards 
Spain, the Communist Party, U. S. A., issued on December 
27, 1937, an order stipulating that 
thereafter at least 80% of the Amer- Commu^st'pJlty 
ican "volunteers" must be non-Com-
munist. The reason for this order was first, that so many 
American Communists have been killed or wounded fighting 
with the Spanish Leftists and, secondly to communize the 
non-Communists, a relatively easy matter since each Leftist 
division is under a political commissar taking his orders 
from Moscow. The same order also directed Communist 
women to fraternize with non-Communist American men 
in restaurants, bars, dance halls and other public places to 
recruit these men for service with the Spanish Leftist forces. 

Finally it should be said that no one who has studied 
the International situation closely can doubt that the next 
striking point for the Third Communist International will 
be America. Fantastic?, asks Captain John Eoghan Kelly 
in the April issue of The Sign: 

So said the uninformed Spaniards of 1932 (he replies), 
when already the Communist machine was boring at high speed 
beneath their feet. The Russian "Liberal" government of 
Alexander Kerensky fell beneath the determined assault of 
79,000 Bolsheviks; the Communist P a r t y of the United States, 
section of the Third International, counts upon two million 
followers and affiliates, led by the fifty thousand card-holding 
members. The Red movement in the United States is now 
presumably self-supporting; informed observers place its 
domestic income at close to six million dollars annually. 
Catholics should not be concerned with whether or 

not those outside the Church consider them objective; 
they should be concerned solely with objectivity. To those 

[ 47 ] 



who know the real story of Spain, any attitude of Catholic 
truculence is simply despicable. When the Christian armies 
of the land which gave to two-thirds of the Western hemis-
phere its religion and its culture are presented as monstrous 
regiments, made up of reactionaries, of Moors and of foreign 
mercenaries, fighting against democracy, the Catholic should 
not be content with defensive tactics, but should carry the 
The Pos't'o battle into the enemy's territory. I t 
of Catholics should be made clear that if the princi-

ples of those who favor the Spanish Reds 
prevail, this country will no longer be a democracy. Hence, 
Americans should be alert to the situation, for the sym-
pathizers of the Leftist regime are just as potentially dan-
gerous to the welfare of this nation as are the emissaries 
of Moscow or the propagandists of Berlin. Whether the 
American radicals are actual members of the Communist 
party or wear the thin disguise of membership in such 
radical groups as the American League for Peace and Demo-
cracy, they are luring the people into organizations bent upon 
the destruction of American democracy. 

Since propaganda is the chief weapon of Moscow, a 
propaganda which Douglas Jerrold calls "a deliberate cir-
culation of lies," it is imperative that Americans be alert 
to the danger of Leftist activities in the United States. 
What these organizations have done in the Spanish crisis is 
proof sufficient that they do not hesitate to violate every 
canon of truth and decency in order to gain their ends in this 
country. Hence the pressing need of A congressional investi-
gation of the radical groups working in favor of the Spanish 
Reds, an investigation in which Catholics should be particu-
larly interested. For in denying to the Spanish people lib-
erty of conscience and other inalienable rights atheistic Com-
munism attacks religious and civic liberties in the United 
States. 

[ 48 ] 



Study these excellent pamphlets and watch for new ones which 
we will publish shortly on Communism! . . . . 

SPAIN AND THE CHRISTIAN FRONT 
ARNOLD LUNN 

THE WAR IN SPAIN 
PASTORAL OF SPANISH BISHOPS 

COMMUNISM AND UNION LABOR 
REV. RAYMOND T . FEELY, S.J. 

ENCYCLICAL ON ATHEISTIC COMMUNISM 
POPE PIUS XI 

CATHOLICISM, AMERICANISM AND COMMUNISM 
REV. FABIAN FLYNN, C.P. 

A CATECHISM OF COMMUNISM FOR 
CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS 

REV. F A B I A N FLYNN, C.P. 

JUST WHAT IS COMMUNISM? 
REV. RAYMOND T . FEELY, S.J. 

COMMUNISM AND MORALS 
(formerly titled "Morals and Moscow") 

REV. RAYMOND T . FEELY, S.J. 

FASCISM, COMMUNISM, THE U. S. A. 
REV. RAYMOND T . FEELY, S.J. 

THE TACTICS OF COMMUNISM 
RT. REV. MSGR. FULTON J . SHEEN, D.D. 

LIBERTY UNDER COMMUNISM 
RT. REV. MSGR. FULTON J . SHEEN, D.D. 

COMMUNISM ANSWERS QUESTIONS 
OF A COMMUNIST 

RT. REV. MSGR. FULTON J . SHEEN, D.D. 

COMMUNISM AND RELIGION 
RT. REV. MSGR. FULTON J . SHEEN, D.D. 

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