SPANISH REFUGEES IN FRANCE
Sm,—Reports have for some time been circulating that Laval is trying to arrange with the Nazis to deliver loo,000 Spanish Republican refugees living in France to work in Germany. It is said that Laval is giving these refugees the choice of being sent to Germany or of being handed over to the Spanish Government.
If this report is true, the action contemplated is utterly indefensible. These Spanish refugees claimed sanctuary in France at the end of the Civil War in .Spain. As Spaniards they are outside the terms of the Armistice between Vichy France and the Nazis, and Laval is under no obligation to hand them over. For them to return to Spain would mean death or imprisonment ; to go to Germany would involve either working for Germany or, if they refused or were not trusted, death or the tortures of the concentration camps.
We appeal to countries throughout the world, especially to the United States and to Latin America, to make such emphatic protest to Vichy as to ensure that these victims of an earlier war shall not undergo further persecution.—We are, yours faithfully,
KATHERINE ATHOLL, CECIL OF CHELWOOD, VIOLET BONHAM- CARTER, A. D. LINDSAY (MASTER OF BALLIOL), GILBERT MURRAY, HAROLD NICOLSON, H. WICJCHAM STEED, A. FREDERICK WHYTE.
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