852.00/3030: Telegram
The Chargé in Italy (Kirk) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 5—noon.]
359. My 357, September 4, 1 p.m. No comment or further information regarding the incident and despatch of warships to Barcelona has so far been published nor is there any editorial comment on the Spanish situation in general. The press last night and this morning, however, shows increased alarm as a result of Popular Front demonstrations in France, the alleged violence of which is attributed to Nationalist victories in Spain and the fear of a Cabinet crisis in France and its potential international repercussions. The newspapers do not for the most part even report the statement attributed by the German press to Italian officials that if France’s present systematic violation of nonintervention continued other governments would be forced to resume freedom of action. Foreign Office officials in discussing the Spanish situation take occasion to point out that France is the one country which does not appear to have put into effect the “non-intervention” agreement which she herself proposed.