852.00/5228
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Bingham) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 26.]
Sir: Referring to my despatch No. 2919 of March 10, 1937,64 regarding non-intervention in Spain, I have the honor to report that, according [Page 283] to information communicated to the Press and published this morning, the Chairman’s Sub-Committee of the Non-intervention Committee was informed at its meeting at the Foreign Office yesterday that all necessary steps to bring into operation at an early date the scheme of observation of the Spanish frontiers adopted by the International Committee at its plenary session held on March 8, had been taken. The Sub-Committee agreed that the scheme of observation should be brought into operation by land and sea at midnight next Monday. Merchant ships bound for Spanish ports which on that date have passed the last observation port lying on their route to Spanish waters will be exempted from the obligation of embarking observing officers. Similar exemptions will be granted to ships having no wireless equipment on board which are at sea, bound for Spain, on that date.
The Italian representative, in reply to an appeal made by the Chairman for a spirit of good will in the solution of the problems with which the Committee was faced, said that he was prepared to resume discussion of the withdrawal of volunteers from Spain provided a similar response was made by representatives of other countries. The Soviet representative, speaking, he said, in the same spirit, did not insist on asking the Sub-Committee to proceed with the discussion of the Note in which he had embodied the proposals he made at the plenary session of the Committee on March 24 that a special commission of inquiry be sent to Spain to investigate the Valencia Government’s allegations concerning the presence of four Italian divisions in Spain.
It was decided to appoint a technical advisory sub-committee to prepare a scheme for the withdrawal from Spain of all persons now engaged, either directly or indirectly, in the conflict in that country who were not of Spanish nationality, or who were not of Spanish nationality on July 18, 1936, and for the effective supervision of any such scheme of withdrawal.
The Sub-Committee approved the proposals submitted by a technical advisory sub-committee for the establishment by the German Government of focal areas in the naval observation zone allotted to the German fleet. The Sub-Committee agreed that the arrangements proposed should be notified at once to the representatives of all maritime countries, the Governments of which were parties to the Nonintervention Agreement, with a request that they should invite their respective Governments to take such legislative or other steps as might be necessary to instruct merchant ships having a right to fly the flags of their respective countries to comply with the focal area scheme approved, so that it might be brought into operation with the least possible delay.
[Page 284]In a written answer in the House of Commons yesterday, Lord Cranborne, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, stated:
“I am not in a position to give details of the contributions paid or promised by all the Governments concerned though I understand the total contributions promised cover the estimated cost of the scheme for a period of one year. Each of the five principal countries concerned will pay 16% of the total cost of the international scheme and of the Anglo-Portuguese scheme, i. e. £143,680, the contribution of the United Kingdom being abated by the estimated sum of £64,000 on account of the liabilities incurred by His Majesty’s Government in connection with the Portuguese scheme. The remaining countries together will contribute in all 20% of the total cost.”
Respectfully yours,
Counselor of Embassy
- Not printed.↩