National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief

The National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief (NJCSR) was a British voluntary association formed at the end of 1936, intended to co-ordinate relief efforts to the victims of the Spanish Civil War. The NJCSR was to act as an umbrella organization, in a field where a number of groups already existed in the United Kingdom. It concentrated on three areas: (a) care of refugees; (b) bringing civilians out of war-affected areas; and (c) medical relief.[1]

The NJCSR also acted as a pressure group. In the case of the evacuation of Basque children to the UK, it is regarded as effective in lobbying the government.[2] Its historical role is contested, however; as part of a national "Aid Spain" movement, its wide political base has been seen as indicative of a popular front, involving numerous institutions, but Buchanan has argued that support for Republican Spain was a form of single-issue politics that acted through individuals.[3]

Supporters

Prominent supporters of the Committee included Geoffrey Theodore Garratt, Eleanor Rathbone and Katharine Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl.[4][5][6] Its personnel overlapped largely with the Basque Children's Committee (BCC) of 1937, and the bodies shared London bases at 53 Marsham Street; but the BCC kept a certain distance, representing as it did organisations such as the Catholic Church which wanted nothing to do with the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) associations of the NJCSR.[7][8][9]

Publicity posters for the NJCSR were designed by Felicity Ashbee, a CPGB member.[10] Leah Manning of the Spanish Medical Aid Committee represented the NJCSR on the ground in Bilbao,[11] and Harry Pursey in Santander.[12] Staff at the office in Perpignan in southern France included Nancy Mitford and Peter Rodd her husband, and Frida Stewart.[13]

Formation

The war in Spain broke out in July 1936. An appeal from Julio Álvarez del Vayo on behalf of the Spanish government led a group of six British Members of Parliament to visit Madrid in November 1936: they were F. Seymour Cocks, W. P. Crawford-Greene, D. R. Grenfell, Archibald James, John Macnamara and Wilfrid Roberts.[14][15] Roberts, on the Parliamentary Group for Spain of 15 MPs, then proposed a National Joint Committee, announced at Friends House on 23 December 1936. It first met in January 1937, continuing in Parliament's committee rooms.[16][17] The leaders that emerged were Roberts, the Duchess of Atholl, and Isobel Brown;[18] the Duchess was Chairman, with Grenfell, Macnamara and Roberts as secretaries.[19]

The Scottish Joint Committee for Spanish Relief was formed in February 1938.[20]

Before the formation of the NJCRS, there was a relief committee under the name "Friends of Spain" (National Committee of the Friends of Spain);[21] and by some point in 1937 this was regarded as incorporated into the NJCRS.[22] This group was not the American committee chaired by John A. Mackay,[23] nor the "Friends of National Spain", a pro-Franco group around Alfred Denville that renamed itself in 1937.[24][25]

Events

End of the Spanish war

With the close of the Spanish Civil War in March 1939, in victory for the forces of Francisco Franco, the NJCSR concentrated on humanitarian efforts in France. It gave some continuing support to the BCC.[28] In 1941 NJSCR funds were used to secure admission to Argentina of Spanish Republicans.[29] The BCC itself continued to function to 1951.[30]

Notes
  1. Linda Palfreeman (1 January 2012). Salud!: British Volunteers in the Republican Medical Service During the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. Sussex Academic Press. pp. 11–3. ISBN 978-1-84519-519-9.
  2. Louise London (27 February 2003). Whitehall and the Jews, 1933-1948: British Immigration Policy, Jewish Refugees and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-521-53449-9.
  3. Tom Buchanan (21 February 1991). The Spanish Civil War and the British Labour Movement. Cambridge University Press. pp. 137–9. ISBN 978-0-521-39333-1.
  4. Honda, Takehiko. "Garratt, Geoffrey Theodore". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/39642. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. Pedersen, Susan. "Rathbone, Eleanor Florence". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35678. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  6. Sutherland, Duncan. "Murray, Katharine Marjory Stewart-". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36301. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  7. Stephen M. Hart (1 January 1988). "!No Pasarán!": Art, Literature and the Spanish Civil War. Tamesis. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-7293-0286-9.
  8. María Estibaliz Ruiz de Azúa y Martínez de Ezquerecocha (1992). Vascongadas y América. Editorial Mapfre. ISBN 978-84-7100-467-3.
  9. Ben Edwards (29 July 2013). With God on Our Side: British Christian Responses to the Spanish Civil War. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 240. ISBN 978-1-4438-5108-4.
  10. Crawford, Alan (20 August 2008). "Obituary: Felicity Ashbee: Keeper of her family's links to the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 September 2015.
  11. Tom Buchanan (21 February 1991). The Spanish Civil War and the British Labour Movement. Cambridge University Press. p. 163. ISBN 978-0-521-39333-1.
  12. Susan Cohen (1 January 2010). Rescue the Perishing: Eleanor Rathbone and the Refugees. Vallentine Mitchell. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-85303-778-1.
  13. Angela Jackson (2 September 2003). British Women and the Spanish Civil War. Routledge. pp. 286 note 24. ISBN 978-1-134-47107-2.
  14. Henry Buckley (24 October 2013). The Life and Death of the Spanish Republic: A Witness to the Spanish Civil War. I.B.Tauris. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-85772-170-9.
  15. Tom Buchanan (2007). The Impact of the Spanish Civil War on Britain: War, Loss and Memory. Sussex Academic Press. p. 94. ISBN 978-1-84519-127-6.
  16. Angela Jackson (2 September 2003). British Women and the Spanish Civil War. Routledge. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-134-47106-5.
  17. Sue Bruley (9 October 2012). Leninism, Stalinism, and the Women's Movement in Britain, 1920-1939. Routledge. p. 281. ISBN 978-0-415-62461-9.
  18. Tom Buchanan (21 February 1991). The Spanish Civil War and the British Labour Movement. Cambridge University Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-521-39333-1.
  19. Linda Palfreeman (1 January 2012). Salud!: British Volunteers in the Republican Medical Service During the Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. Sussex Academic Press. p. 239. ISBN 978-1-84519-519-9.
  20. Daniel Gray (22 July 2013). Homage to Caledonia: Scotland and the Spanish Civil War. Luath Press Limited. p. 105. ISBN 978-1-909912-12-0.
  21. Susan Cohen (1 January 2010). Rescue the Perishing: Eleanor Rathbone and the Refugees. Vallentine Mitchell. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-85303-778-1.
  22. Life and Letters and the London Mercury. Brendin Publishing Company. 1967. p. 3.
  23. "John H. Sinclair, The Hand and the Road: The Life and Times of John A. Mackay, International Bulletin of Missionary Research Book Reviews Vol. 34, No. 2 April 2010 pp. 114–26". Retrieved 13 September 2015.
  24. Peter Barberis; John McHugh; Mike Tyldesley (2000). Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century. A&C Black. p. 608. ISBN 978-0-8264-5814-8.
  25. Hugo García (2010). The Truth about Spain!: Mobilizing British Public Opinion, 1936-1939. Sussex Academic Press. p. 61. ISBN 978-1-84519-332-4.
  26. "1930s — Royal Albert Hall". Retrieved 13 September 2015.
  27. "Aid to Spain, www2.warwick.ac.uk/". Retrieved 13 September 2015.
  28. Katharine Knox; Tony Kushner (12 October 2012). Refugees in an Age of Genocide: Global, National and Local Perspectives During the Twentieth Century. Routledge. p. 122. ISBN 978-1-136-31319-6.
  29. Susan Cohen (1 January 2010). Rescue the Perishing: Eleanor Rathbone and the Refugees. Vallentine Mitchell. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-85303-778-1.
  30. Linda Rabben (28 February 2011). Give Refuge to the Stranger: The Past, Present, and Future of Sanctuary. Left Coast Press. p. 101. ISBN 978-1-61132-029-9.
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