Non-Intervention

Abstract

Britain had now, although somewhat tentatively, committed herself to non-intervention both in the Agreement and in the setting up of a committee of co-ordination. Over the next two years many efforts were made to bolster this commitment. Ever since then contradictory criticisms of these efforts have been made. It has been argued on the one hand that non-intervention was farcical and unable to prevent massive intervention by Italy, Russia and Germany. On the other hand it is claimed that non-intervention prevented France from aiding the Republic. If either of these views is true, then clearly the role of the British Government in supporting non-intervention was crucial to the outcome of the Spanish Civil War. Here it is proposed to examine the efficacy of the actual machinery of non-intervention: its powers and limitations as imposed by the agreement, the Committee, and later by the Control Scheme.