Letter (copy) : Spain

              WMC/AC/308 
International
PERSONAL.
7th January, 1937.
Mr. G. Hicks, M.P.,
Amalgamated Union of Building Trade Workers, 
"The Builders",
Crescent Lane,
LONDON, S.W.4.
	SUBSTITUTE
Dear George,
SPAIN.
Thanks for your letter of 4th January and your good wishes, which I heartily reciprocate.   I hope the following information about the Spanith Medical Aid Committee, etc., will meet with your requirements.
This Committee was formed as the result of a decision of a meeting of members of the Socialist Medical Association and the Inter-Hospital Socialist Society, held on 6th August last, and Dr. H. B. Morgan, the Medical Adviser to our Social Insurance Department, was appointed its Chairman.
The Committee approached the National Council of Labour for financial assistance.     At that time we were rather dubious about the wisdom of sending ambulances or a medical unit to Spain.     We had been in communication with the Spanish Embassies in Paris and in London, and we were informed, both directly and through the I.F.T.U. that there were adequate medical services and equipment already in Spain, and that what was needed was arms, and arms alone.
After this the Spanish comrades evidently changed their ground and thought it would be a good moral gesture for a unit to be sent from Great Britain.  We wanted to assure ourselves that no Communists were associated with the unit, and that it would be really representative of the British Labour Movement. I am sorry th say that as time has gone on, although most of
the members of the Spanish Medical Aid Committee are above suspicion, the work has grown more and more in association with the Communists.
The Committee received altogether nearly £2,000 from the National Council of Labour, and on more than one occasion requested the N.C.L. to appoint three representatives to its Committee.     In view of the fact that the National Council were not satisfied that the Committee had no Communist connections, they were not