Franco's Foreign Forces The military side of the Spanish situation
and the political are closely associated, and the course the war is taking no doubt accounts for General Franco's changed attitude on the withdrawal of foreign troops, with all the consequences that change may have in the larger international field. When the British plan for the withdrawal of foreign volunteers was approved by the Non-Intervention Committee it was remarked here that the satisfaction generally expressed was premature, since it would be perfectly easy, and might be convenient, for Germany and Italy to support the British proposals in the committee and then bring them to nothing by ensuring General Franco's non-acceptance of them. It looks as though something very like that had been happening, for if Germany and Italy desired the volunteers to go, General Franco would have no choice but to act accordingly. Instead, after having declared himself nine months ago in favour of withdrawal, he has, with gross discourtesy, left the British Note on the subject unanswered for five weeks, in spite of more than one sharp reminder. The fact is, no doubt, that General Franco cannot do without foreign help ; even with it he is making only slow and costly progress. Rome, indeed, has been publicly and officially boasting of the part played by Italian aircraft in the recent bitter fighting. This reduces the Anglo-Italian agreement to a farce, makes a partial re- opening of the Pyrenean frontier by France alniost inevitable, and involves a general and serious deterioration of international relations.
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