740.0011 European War, 1939/161
The Spanish Chargé (De Silva) to the Secretary of State
His Excellency the Chief of the Spanish Government has made public the following appeal.30
With the authority which is given me by the fact of having suffered during three years the burden of a war for the liberation of our country I address myself to the Governments in whose hands lies the responsibility for releasing a catastrophe without precedent in history, in order that they may avoid for their peoples the sufferings and tragedies which befell the Spanish people notwithstanding the voluntary limitation upon the use of methods of destruction, horrors which would be multiplied a hundredfold in a new war. It is a great responsibility to extend the conflict to seas and places distant from the actual scene of the war without an imperious reason to justify it. Its extension without benefit to the belligerents would produce intense and insuperable disturbance of the economy of the world, incalculable losses in its riches, paralyzation of its commerce, with grave repercussions in the standard of life of the humbler classes. The more the conflict is extended the more the germ of future wars is sown. In these circumstances I appeal to the common sense and the responsibility of the rulers of the nations in order to direct the efforts of all toward the localization of the present conflict.
- Text of radio appeal by General Francisco Franco Bahamonde.↩