The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1945-05-04
COFFEE BILL Will
SPEED Defeat OF
FASCIST NETWORK

| On January ~ Representative join
M. Coffee, Democrat, of Washington,
submitted a resolution recommending
that the United States break off all
diplomatic relations with the nazi-fa-
langist government of Spain. The Cot
fee resolution urged further that fol-
lowing such action by this country a
military commission shall be charged
with the task of aiding "the heroic
republican guerilla armies of Spain
when their revolt, timed to weaken
the nazi armies in their moment of
greatest crisis, creates in Spain one
of the active and decisive battlefields
of this global war;
In response to an inquiry from
PEACE NEWS regarding the progress
of H. R. 100 Congressman Coffee
writes that the bill SIS still bottled up
in the foreign affairs committee OF
the house of representatives and will
not receive a hearing until the green
light is given by Representative Sol
Bloom of New York City, chairman of
that committee" No similar bill has
vet been submitted to the senate.
Why Break With Franco
The following are some of the con-
vincing reasons for breaking relations
with the axis government of Spain,
as quoted from the Coffee bill:
1t has become clear that the United
Nations deaths of this war will have
been in vain if German fascism is
permitted to exist anywhere in the
world when the war ends. The pres
ent fascist government of Spain was
created by the government of Adolf
Hitler and Benito Mussolini, became
a formal signatory of the axis pact in
1899, and has maintained troops IN
the axis army on the United Nations
eastern front since 1941.
The nominal head of the present
Spanish government has at all times
openlyu and flagrantly called for a
German victory over the United Ma
lions in this war and, under Franco,
has become in effect colony of the
third reich---her factories and her soil
devoted to producing cloth, guns, and
food for the nazis; her merchant ma
rine devoted to carrying nazi spies to
the New World for oil, wheat, cotton,
and arms from the Americas to the
German wehrmacht; her wolfram, cop
per, iron, and coal mines devoted to
the raw materials for the
German weapons which kill American
and all other United Nations soldiers;
her shipyards devoted to repairing
German warships damaged in engage
ments with American and British
forces.
The controlled press and radio Of
fascist Spain are overwhelmingly de-
voted to spreading the propaganda of
the axis and painting a false, deroga
tory picture of the United Nations
and their leaders
In accordance with the imperialis-
tic principles of falangism the Spanish
Palange has been openly working to
reclaim the Philippine islands, Puerto
Rico and Cuba for the Spanish en-
Dire, and working actively against the |
United States of America in the Latin |
American nations. The falange main
aims cells and organizations in 20 |
Latin-American nations devoted to
the cause of the axis, the
members of which are called upon to
act as military spies and propagan-
lists of the axis. The falange chiefs
If the Latin-American countries have
been empowered by the falangist
Spanish government to control the
Spanish legations, embassies, and con-
,ular offices in the Americas.
People Want a Republic
The overwhelming majority of the
Spanish people, who fought valiantly
n the tragic years 1896 to 1889 against
he axis invaders of their democratic
'epublic, and who warned the world
hat the axis conquest Of the Spanish
epublic was actually the first battle
# the axis world war against the
have now given notice
hat they intend to rise up against the
.xis regime of Spain. The Spanish re-
publican underground has since 1899
,een sabotaging mines producing coal
nd ores for the German war ma
hine, blowing up freight trains carry
ng Spanish and Latin-American raw
materials to Germany via France,
vrecking nazi-run airfields and naval
in Spain and the Spanish
The expressed and open
i'm of the Spanish republican under