Circular from the Immediate Aid Committee

The census carried out by the National Statistics Institute in 1947 revealed that there had been 1,218 Spaniards living in Belgium in 1935. The outbreak of the Civil War had a major impact on them, and many supported the rebels, as this report demonstrates. 

Immediately after the military rebellion, Ernesto de Zulueta e Isasi, who had been the chargé d’affaires in the Spanish embassy to Belgium and Luxemburg, and Alfonso García-Conde, the embassy’s second secretary, resigned their posts and on July 26 opened an office representing the rebel administration, although it was not officially recognized by the Belgian government until 1939. Acting without the normal diplomatic legitimacy and privileges, the two men used their contacts in the Belgian government and the Spanish community to further two related objectives: promote the cause of the rebels and undermine the interests of the Republic in Belgium. 

The initiatives of their office reached beyond political and diplomatic circles, seeking to mobilize the support of as many resident Spaniards as possible for the rebels. To this end, in 1937 they created the so-called Committee for Immediate Aid. Its goal was to raise money to purchase material for Franco’s troops. It also called on women to make clothes to help rebel soldiers get through the winter. The Committee also launched other initiatives to encourage fundraising, including copying the twice-monthly “single dish meal day” and weekly “day without dessert” programs created by the Francoist authorities.  

Zulueta and García-Conde’s activities promoting the rebel cause and working to increase support for it were wide ranging and quite successful. In the diplomatic sphere, they were able to undercut the efforts of the Spanish embassy to defend the interests of the Republic in Belgium and Luxembourg. In the political sphere, they succeeded in winning official recognition for the rebel government before the war had ended. In the commercial sphere, they were able to create a Spanish Chamber of Commerce and look after economic relations between Belgium and the rebel zone. Finally, they were also able to engage Belgians and resident Spaniards in solidarity activities to collect resources to improve the conditions of Francoist soldiers at the front.