ABSTRACT
Non-intervention was defended on the ground that the Spanish conflict was a civil war, though from its inception onward it was actually an international war, the boldest step up to that time in the Axis progress towards the conquest of Europe. On August 1, 1936, whan Germans and Italians were already in Spain, having entered almost simultaneously with Franco, the French Government proposed that the conflict be localized by non-intervention. The republicans included very active Communists with Russian support, very violent anarchists, Catholics and conservatives or the Basque provinces and Catalonia who were jealous of the autonomy of those regions which Franco opposed, and, the author suppose, some who, fantastic though it may seem, believed democracy was possible in Spain. It probably is no greater than the divergence between their ideals and their practical policies in the domestic field, or between the principles and practices of most individuals.
