1947: British Intervention

Abstract

The Tripartite Declaration on Spain and the UN resolution of 1946 called for a government in Madrid committed to democratic freedoms. The assumption that such a government would automatically receive international recognition gave the Spanish opposition in 1947 an added incentive for working towards an anti-Franco coalition. However, the UN resolution also required the restoration of democratic government to Spain ‘within a reasonable time’, after which the Security Council was to consider further ‘adequate’ measures to remedy the situation. This time-limit, interpreted as extending probably at most until the next session of the UN General Assembly in the autumn of 1947, alarmed the British government.1 It therefore took a more direct interest than hitherto in the Spanish opposition’s attempts to establish a democratic alternative to the Franco regime, which, it hoped, could then be used to counter possible UN demands for harsher sanctions against Spain.2