Secretary's.
HVT/FC/446.
20th April, 1939.
Mr. J. R. Shanley,
The Amalgamated Union of Upholsterers,
Swinton House,
324, Gray's Inn Road, W.C.1.
Dear Mr. Shanley,
SPANISH REFUGEES.
I understand that your General Council is meeting shortly and perhaps the members may like to be informed of the manner in which the funds subscribed to the International Solidarity Fund have been administered.
I am, therefore, enclosing a supply of illustrated reports which I trust will be of interest.
There is an impression abroad that with the end of the Spanish war our liabilities have ceased. This is very far from the position. Whilst the war was in progress we sent what we could to Spain, but now we have definite commitments.
To deal only with the position in this country, we have nearly 350 Spanish seamen whose maintenance we have guaranteed to the Government in order to prevent them being sent back to Spain. There are also a number of prominent Trade Unionists here whose return to Spain might be fatal.
Then the fund generally has the enormous task of helping to alleviate the lot of 350,000 Spanish refugees in France where conditions are appalling.