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# N.Y.-Si Op. 38NOT SECRETFROM: No name, HAVANA, CUBA.TO: SR. LUIS TEDESC, PICHINCHA 969, BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINE28th July to 14th August 1942 : Spanish## OPINION AND CONDITIONS IN SPAIN: REPORTS COMPILED BY COMMUNISTS FROM INTERVIEWS WITH PASSENGERS FROM SPAIN.This cover contains Reports Nos. 350-3, 355-8 and 371, compiled from interviews with persons who have recently left Spain, and describe the attitude of the Spanish people to the war and to their Government, the extent of German penetration in Spain and of Spanish aid to the Axis, the activities and standing of political parties of the Right and Left in Spain, and general living conditions in the country. This group of reports contains opinions of both Communist and Falangist sympathisers.## PREVIOUS RECORDS:TRI.10901/42, TRI.11693/42,TRI. 24567, and TRI.14201/42 cover groups of reports on the same subject.S/4555 covers a group of reports on the Spanish political scene, possibly from the same source as the above, which may be VICENTS URIBE, the Communist leader, whose headquarters are in CUBA. See also BER.14567/42, BER.14974/42, BER.19252/42.Addressee, LUIS TEDESCHI, is shown by TRI.13828/42 to be a cover address for a U.S.E. (UNION DEMOCRATICA ESPANOLA) Manifesto sent from Cuba. He may also be the TEDESCHI, ESTADOS UNIDOS 8566, who is given as a cover address in the s.w message in TRI.14725/42 (secret).## REPORT No.350Results of our first conversation with a young man from TORREL VEGA, SANTANDER, about 28 years old. At the beginning of the war he was in the army in MOROCCO and spent the whole war in Franco's army. He comes from a family of small garage-owners. Neither he nor any of his family have belonged to any political party or syndicate although his sympathies have always been on the left.## SPANISH ATTITUDE TO THE REGIME AND THE WAR.He says that the immense majority of the Spanish people is against Franco and the Falange, workers, peasants, employees, bourgeois, big and small and a large proportion of the soldiers and the Roquetes. He says that everyone hopes for the victory of the Allies. In it there is a blind trust, especially when the U.S. entered the war as the U.S. and England are the most powerful countries in the world, especially with the assistance of Russia. Only the Falangists desire and plan for the victory of Hitler, even though there are many Falangists too who take a very black view of him. He says the majority of people sympathise with England. They have complete faith in the victory of the Democracies. There are supporters of the USSR, but the immense majority, according to our informant, do not like "communism" and prefer Democracy. He is obviously rather muddled by the Falangist propaganda against the U.S.S.R. He says that the entrance of the U.S.S.R. into the war gave rise to happiness all over the world, although there had been a great deal of confusion before, through the "Treaty of Aid between Russia and Germany." But this confusion disappeared with German aggression against the U.S.S.R. He says that the German defeats on the Russian front raised morale and renewed everyone's confidence in victory. Hitler's admission in his speech of how much they had suffered in Russia in winter, and that they were on the edge of catastrophe, produced great joy among the people. He says that the entry of the U.S. into the War caused a very good impression, and increased people's confidence in victory although Pearl Harbour caused some demoralisation. He says that no one wishes Spain to enter the war, except the Falangists. Franco does not wish it.