MEMORANDUM ON THE SPANISH QUESTION.
 
      
 
 
In examining the present situation in Spain, especially in 
      its international aspect, the following observations, in the 
      opinion of the Spanish Government, should be taken into account 
      : -
 
      
 
 
First: In its internal, purely Spanish, aspect, the most elementary 
      common sense shows that the political and moral position of the 
      Republic, as it has been defined in the speeches made recently 
      by President Azana and the Prime Minister Dr. Negrin, is bound 
      to come nearer to the general feeling of the Spanish nation on 
      the whole than that of the rebel leaders. For in the first place 
      it is a frankly Spanish position, after the elimination carried 
      out spontaneously and by our own initiative, of all the foreign 
      elements fighting in the Republican Army. In the second place 
      it is conceived under the sign of "reconciliation" 
      of all Spaniards for the reconstruction of the country, and in 
      this respect we must insist particularly on the two points relating 
      to the amnesty and the plebiscite, which figure among the thirteen 
      formulated by the Spanish Government as the essence and summary 
      of its programme.
 
      
 
 
In contrast with this policy, the rebel leaders continue to 
      cling stubbornly to their position of a complete victory, unconditional 
      surrender, the elimination from the national life of all those 
      who do not accept their ideas and principles.
 
      
 
 
Under these conditions it is clear that the only thing which 
      could bring together once more the general mass of the country, 
      re-establishing a pacific and juridically normal national existence, 
      is the policy of national reconciliation; preached by the Republic, 
      on the basis of a broad amnesty and the establishment of a liberal 
      political regime, democratic and parliamentary, inaugurated with 
      a great national plebiscite.