Herr Hitler had an opportunity of discussing the situation - with
his various advisers, including General Frankel, the German Minister accredited to General Franco at Burgos, when he travelled from Berchtesgaden to attend the funeral of General von Seeckt in Berlin on Wednesday. The German General Staff are known to be strongly opposed to further entanglement in Spain, and with good reason, for no one could tell where such a move might end. Russia would certainly not remain passive, and France even more certainly could not. The war would be protracted, intensified, and inter- nationalised. There would be no guarantee that the German contingent would secure Franco the victory, and still less guarantee that even if it did he could control the country unaided. Yet the possibility that Herr Hitler may consider his prestige too deeply engaged for him to withdraw from Spain has to be reckoned with seriously. The consequences of such a decision would be profoundly grave, and till it is taken it need not be anticipated. There is in fact a perfectly good way out if Germany chooses to take it. What Britain and France are pressing for is an effective ban on the despatch of foreign volunteers from any country to Spain. Germany is entitled to claim that she proposed this months ago. and no one will grudge her the honour of leading the way in a prohibition which would stop the stream by which the Spanish war is fed, and produce a situation in which a truce and the exercise of external conciliation would be possible. Herr Hitler, moreover, could justly point to the agreement as ending the flow of Russian and French volunteers to Madrid. Along those lines there is still some hope.
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