17 MARCH

BRITAIN SECRETLY APPOINTS A LIAISON AGENT TO FRANCO’S FASCIST REBELS

[ 17 March 1937 ]

On 17 March 1937, the Cabinet agreed to appoint a liaison agent to Franco’s fascist rebels in Spain, but decided to keep the project secret as ministers realised that any acknowledgement of such a move would provoke uproar in the House of Commons and among the public.¹  They knew they were in effect legitimising an uprising led by Spain’s generals which had already murdered many thousands of people suspected of sympathising with the democratically elected government in Madrid, in many cases butchering entire families.

FOOTNOTES

1. Peter Day, Franco’s Friends: How British Intelligence Helped Bring Franco to Power in Spain, Biteback Publishing, London, 2012, p. 122.

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