April 1937: Confidential letter from an agent of Negrín, 15 April 1937

“…I had no wish to see them succeed in their endeavor. I think I ought to explain why. The arguments put to me by Roldán Cortada by way of justifying his intended purchase of arms struck me as most unconvincing. His sole theme was that battle had to be joined with the FAI and that the membership of the FAI are armed. Supposing that it really were necessary to take on the FAI and that the FAI membership are armed, it behooves the government and not the militants of other parties to join that battle, as well as to disarm those FAI members who may bear arms. I put this argument to comrade Roldán Cortada, but to no avail. All I achieved was that he would not let me in on the negotiations into which he had entered. Thus I do not know whether comrade Roldán Cortada and his companion managed to purchase the weapons they spoke about. Nor have I made any effort to authenticate this. I have no particular interest in discovering this. But it is a fact that once the two comrades of whom I have been speaking had departed for Barcelona, a large number of militants of the United Socialist Party of Catalonia passed through Paris and all of them put to anyone who would give them a hearing the very same contention as comrade Roldán Cortada … to whit, that battle had to be joined with the FAI. Latterly I have had reports of leading comrades from this party, comrade Comorera among them, having met with communist personnel from other countries and of agreement having been reached regarding a plan for a thoroughgoing attack upon the FAI. This business strikes me as extremely dangerous. If comrade Roldán Cortada did manage to buy the weapons he was charged with procuring and if the FAI membership are armed, as our comrade assures me they are, then at any moment Barcelona is going to be the scene of a most unedifying spectacle upon which the rebels will capitalize with all too ready a will. Already they concoct such things at the moment without any foundation in fact; so now they are about to be made a magnificent present. If the FAI truly constitutes a danger to the war we are waging, it falls to the government to eliminate the danger. It has more than enough resources to do so. To permit another party, even our am party, to shoulder that governmental task, an exclusively governmental task, may entail consequences most grave.

I apologize to you for expressing myself in the above fashion when my task is merely to inform. But I can see how detrimental that which is being hatched would be to the war, and I cannot refrain from expressing what I feel. What one must seek is victory in the war, and this does not strike me as the way to win it. The opposite indeed: it strikes me as the very means of placing victory in jeopardy. This is why I write thus in reporting to you the visit of comrade Roldán Cortada and that which I have observed since.

Accept, dear D.J., my most heartfelt greetings — ‘C’

Rudolf Rocker Archives — Spain. Spanje b.o. Documents Folio C. Document No. 119.