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IV: POLITICS IN THE 1930s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2019

Extract

My first visit in a parliamentary capacity to Republican Spain was in the autumn of 1934. I had heard on reliable authority that a rising of the miners in the Asturias had been suppressed with extreme brutality. The Spanish Foreign Legion had been brought over from Africa, and they had meted punishment on wives and families as well as on the militant miners. It was therefore suggested that Miss Ellen Wilkinson M.P. and I should go to Spain on a humanitarian mission, and to point out to the Spanish authorities that much harm was being done to our relations with Spain by the atrocity stories appearing in the British press.

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Primary source material
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 2019 

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References

216 Ellen Wilkinson (1891–1947), Labour MP and later minister of education, 1945–1947.

217 Alejandro Lerroux (1864–1949), founder and leader of the Radical Republican Party, and prime minister of Spain on three separate occasions between 1933–1935.

218 The door is open.

219 Civil guard commander Lisardo Doval Bravo, who had a reputation for being tough on the leftists and was a friend of Franco.

220 José María Gil-Robles (1898–1980), right-wing conservative and political leader of the Catholic Right during this period.

221 Sir Austen Chamberlain (1863–1937), Conservative MP and minister; foreign secretary, 1924–1929, so not at the time of this visit, but still a senior figure in the House of Commons.

222 Henry Snell, later Baron Snell (1865–1944), Labour politician and Labour leader in the House of Lords, 1935–1940.

223 Lord Robert Cecil, later 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood (1864–1958), politician and diplomat who famously advocated the cause of the League of Nations.

224 Patricia Koo Tsien (1917–2015); her professional life was spent at the United Nations.

225 Wellington Koo (1888–1985), represented China at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919; senior diplomat who served in variety of ministerial posts for the Republic of China.

226 Soong Mei-ling also known as Madam Chiang Kai-Shek (1897–2003), leading political figure as First Lady of the Republic of China, wife of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek and sister-in-law of Dr Sun Yat-sen.

227 Harold Laski (1893–1950), Professor of Political Science at the London School of Economics; Labour Party official and Fabian.

228 Victor Gollancz (1893–1967), later Sir Victor Gollancz, prominent publisher and founder of the Left Book Club.

229 S. Margery Fry (1874–1958), social reform advocate; later secretary of the Howard League for Penal Reform and principal of Somerville College, Oxford.

230 Roger Fry (1866–1934), painter and art critic.

231 Their action was taken in December 1937 against the liner Duchess of Richmond, which contained Japanese cargo and in January 1938 Middlesbrough dockers refused to load the Japanese steamer Haruna Maru.

232 Ruth Gollancz, née Lowy (1892–1973), painter and wife of Victor Gollancz.

233 Sir Percival David, 2nd baronet (1892–1964), financier and collector of Chinese art.

234 George Eumorphopolos (1863–1939), financier and collector of Eastern art.

235 Arthur Clegg (1914–1994), national organiser of the China Campaign Committee, 1937–1949.

236 Chiang Kai-Shek (1887–1975), political and military leader of the Republic of China; left the mainland for Taiwan after 1949.

237 Joseph Needham (1900–1995), biochemist, sinologist and writer.

238 Barbara Ayrton-Gould (1886–1950), suffragist and later Labour MP.

239 Frederick Montague, later Baron Amwell (1876–1966), Labour MP and peer.

240 Rev. George Woods (1886–1951), Labour Co-operative MP.

241 Emile Vandervelde (1866–1938), Belgian Labour politician; held several ministries in the interwar years.

242 Diego Martinez Barrio (1883–1962), president of the Cortes, 1936–1939.

243 Juan Negrín (1892–1956), Socialist Workers Party politician; last prime minister of Spain, 1937–1939, before the Franco regime took over.

244 Julio Álvarez del Vayo (1891–1975), academic, journalist and Socialist Workers Party politician; foreign minister twice during the Second Spanish Republic.

245 Indalecio Prieto (1883–1962), Socialist Workers Party politician; served in various roles during the Second Spanish Republic.

246 José Giral (1879–1962), republican left politician; prime minister, 1936.

247 Dolores Ibárruri known as ‘La Pasionaria’ (1895–1989), prominent Communist Party politician.

248 More commonly known as the Republican Union.

249 Manuel Azaña (1880–1940), president of the Republic, 1936–1939.

250 Francisco Franco (1892–1975), nationalist general and later military dictator and head of state, 1939–1975.

251 The then currency of Spain.

252 A bloody civil war battle in 1937–1938.

253 Roughly translated as ‘the struggle for peace, liberty, and the human race’.

254 Manuel Portela Valladares (1867–1952), Liberal Party politician and prime minister, 1935–1936.

255 219 bc; sparked the Second Punic War.

256 Juan Hernández Saravia (1880–1962), republican general.

257 Adolf Hitler (1889–1945), chancellor, then Führer (dictator) of Germany, 1933–1945.

258 Benito Mussolini (1883–1945), prime minister and duce (dictator) of Italy, 1922–1943.

259 José Miaja (1878–1958), army officer and minister during the Second Republic.

260 Pablo de Azcárate (1890–1971), Spanish diplomat; ambassador to London till 1939, when Britain recognised the Franco government.

261 Katharine Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl (1874–1960), Scottish Unionist MP; her support of Republican Spain earned the nickname the ‘Red Duchess’.

262 Isabel Brown (1894–1984), founding member and lifelong supporter of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

263 Hugh Dalton (1887–1962), later Baron Dalton, Labour MP; minister of Economic Warfare, 1940–1942 and chancellor of the exchequer, 1945–1947.

264 Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965), later Sir Winston Churchill, Conservative and Liberal MP; later Conservative leader; prime minister, 1940–1945 and 1951–1955. Churchill was on the backbenches at this time.

265 Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940), Conservative MP and leader; prime minister, 1937–1940.

266 Halifax visited the Nazi president of the Reichstag, Hermann Göring, for a hunt in November 1937.

267 Maxim Litvinov (1876–1951), Soviet minister of foreign affairs, 1930–1939.

268 Sir William Strang (1893–1978), later 1st Baron Strang; diplomat and later permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, 1949–1953.

269 Joseph Stalin (1878–1953), dictator and general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1922–1952.

270 Joachim von Ribbentrop (1893–1946), German ambassador to London, 1936–1938, and Nazi foreign minister, 1938–1945.

271 Extract from letter to Lord Snell dated 22 July 1939.

272 Roberts, Andrew, Holy Fox: The Life of Lord Halifax (London: 1991)Google Scholar.