Report of Delegation to Spain. September 10th to 21st, 1936

              C.131/36.  (d-f-e) International Solidarity Fund.
Report of Delegation to Spain, September 10th to 21st, 1936.
In a preliminary report on the International Solidarity Fund and Spain, drawn up on September 4th, 1936 (C.124/36) attention was drawn to difficulties which had been encountered by the administrators of the Fund in ascertaining the needs of the Spanish comrades and establishing adequate contact with them.
On September 10th a delegation left Paris for Madrid with the purpose of attempting to remove these difficulties and especially of forming a committee of the Spanish Socialist Party and the General Union of Workers (U.G.T.) to organise the relief work in Spain itself. The delegation was composed of George Stolz, Assistant Secretary of the I.F.T.U., Jean Delvigne, Belgian member of the Executive and Administrative Committee of the L.S.I. and John Price of the Secretariat of the L.S.I.
The delegation left Paris by train for Toulouse on the evening of September 10th, proceeded from Toulouse to Alicante by air on September 11th, and reached Madrid on the evening of that date after journeying from Alicante by train. Stolz and Delvigne left Madrid on the evening of September 15th and Price on the evening of September 18th.
At practically all the interviews with Spanish comrades the delegation was accompanied by Comrade Nenni, who had been in the country since his arrival there with de Brouckere at the beginning of August, and had thereby obtained a knowledge of the situation and the people which was most useful to the delegation in the accomplishment of its task. Comrade Nenni also accompanied the members of the delegation on their visit to the front on Sunday, September 13th, when they spent the morning in the Talavera-Santa Olalla sector and the afternoon in Toledo.
The first task of the delegation was to visit the offices of the organisations affiliated to the two Internationals. Their first conversation took place with the comrades of the Spanish General Union of Workers (U.G.T.) and especially with the Assistant Secretary, Pascual Tomas. Agreement was reached here on the formation of a Spanish relief committee. During this interview Stolz also discussed the question of the special meeting of the General Council of the I.F.T.U. for which the Spanish Trade Unions had asked. September 23rd was chosen as the date for the meeting, and in preference to the original suggestion by Pascual Tomas that the meeting should be held in Geneva a proposal by Stolz that it should be held in Paris was accepted in order that it could be combined with the public meeting desired by the Spanish comrades, thus giving other delegates an opportunity of speaking. The translator at this interview was Ogier Preteceille.
During the afternoon the delegation also had a conversation with Manuel Albar at the offices of the Socialist Party. Here, too, there was an agreement as to the formation of the committee, and it was now only necessary to obtain the consent of the competent bodies to the election of the necessary representatives.
A further task Of the delegation was to visit Largo Caballero, General Secretary of the U.G.T. and Prime Minister, and Indalecio Prieto, Minister for Marine and Air. The delegation brought letters to these comrades from Comrade Adler, who is administering the International Solidarity Fund in the absence of Comrade Schevenels in America. The delegation also drew the attention of