852.00/8426: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in Spain (Thurston) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:25 p.m.]
1038. 1. Military. Military activities during the past 3 weeks have largely been confined to the Extremadura and Ebro fronts. On the former the Government first arrested the Rebel drive toward the Almaden mines and then initiated a counter offensive which made some progress but now apparently has in turn been checked. On the latter the Rebels have continued and greatly intensified their effort to drive the Loyalist forces from across the river. While the Government lines still hold and some hope is entertained that they will not break, it is generally expected that the Rebel effort will eventually meet with success.
2. Political. Although rumors of political crises are recurrent there is no evidence to support them. Basic divergencies, which I have frequently reported, continue to exist and it is probable that under certain conditions a “peace party” might emerge—but at the moment the Negrín-army-coalition is paramount.
As evidence of the healing of the breach between the Government and the Generalidad two Catalans (Nicolau d’Olmer of the Bank of Spain and Quero Molares who recently resigned as sub–Secretary of State) will be included in the Spanish delegation to the forthcoming meeting of the Assembly of the League of Nations.
3. International. Alvarez del Vayo will leave tomorrow for France en route to Geneva, where he will later be joined for the Assembly by Negrín and among others the Spanish Ambassadors at London and Paris. No reply has been made to the representations reported in my 1034, August 23, 5 p.m. Del Vayo has informed me, however, that restrictions at the French frontier have been somewhat relaxed—presumably [Page 238] in view of the persistent reports of the arrival in Spain of a constant supply of new Italian equipment.
Señor Del Vayo appeared to be impressed this noon by the gravity of reports just received from the Spanish Chargé d’Affaires at Praha. These appear to imply that unless Benes’ latest concessions are accepted hostilities are inevitable.92
The British exchange commission has just visited Barcelona and is now en route to Burgos.