TRANSLATION OF LETTER FROM GENERAL FRANCO          
 
                                                            
 
 
To His Excellency don Jacobo FitzJames Stuart, Duke of Alba, 
               Spanish Ambassador in Great Britain.         
 
                                                            
 
 
               My dear Ambassador and friend,               
 
      The purpose of this letter is to convey to you in frank, explicit 
      and straightforward terms my ideas - which are those of the Spanish 
      nation - on the subject of our relations with Great Britain, 
      so that you may transmit them faithfully and with the utmost 
     frankness to our good friend, the British Prime Ministe
 
                                                            
 
 
The gravity of the European situation, and the ro1e that Great 
      Britain and Spain will be called upon to play in the future concert 
      of Western Europe, make it desirable that we should clarify our 
      relations, eliminating that string of complaints and petty incidents 
  which for two years and more have put such a strain upon t
 
                                                            
 
 
The noble words that the Prime Minister not long ago addressed 
      to Spain with such favorable effect upon our public opinion - 
      and which are in keeping with that other gesture of his youth 
      when, with such generosity of spirit, he served under the Spanish 
      flag - are a guarantee that these anxieties of ours will be echoed 
                         in his own mind.                   
 
                                                            
 
 
I find it perfectly natural that up to now substantial differences 
      should have existed between the British outlook and the attitude 
      which might be adopted by Spain, less burdened as she is, as 
      a neutral country, with commitments, less exposed to passions; 
      but, with the progress of the war, the identity of interests 
      and of concern for the future is assuming a more definite shape, 
      which, indeed, we see revealed in the speeches, statements and 
       commentaries about the Prime Minister's journeying.  
 
                                                            
 
 
Because we cannot believe in the good faith of Communist Russia, 
      and because we are alive to the insidious might of Bolshevism, 
      we must regard the destruction or weakening of her neighbors