A private and confidential report of an interview with General Franco in 1950
BESSBOROUGH, Vere Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough (1880-1956), Chairman of Rio Tinto. Private and confidential report of an interview with General Franco, Madrid, 11 October 1950
Six-page typescript report headed "Interview with General Franco", dated 11 October 1950, with manuscript "Private & Confidential" at head. This is copy No. 4, from a stated distribution of four copies: H.B.M. Charge d'Affaires in Madrid; Lord Bessborough; Mr O'Brien; and Mr Gough. This copy was retained by Trevor Gough, General Manager of the Rio Tinto mines. Carbon copy on onion-skin paper. Sheets fastened at upper left, showing creasing and handling wear, particularly at the margins and corners; very good overall for a working confidential document.
A detailed private account by Lord Bessborough, Chairman of the Rio Tinto Company, of an hour-long audience with General Francisco Franco at the Pardo Palace in October 1950. Although Bessborough records that Franco had been informed he was being received "not as Chairman of the Rio Tinto Company, but as an individual," it is clear from the distribution list that the meeting concerned relations between Franco and the company chairman.
The Rio Tinto Company had owned and worked the great copper mines at Huelva since 1873. The mines remained a major British-owned industrial undertaking through the Spanish Civil War and the establishment of Franco's dictatorship, and were only sold into Spanish ownership in 1954.
Bessborough gives a remarkably candid account of both the ceremonial surroundings of the Pardo Palace and the political conversation itself. Franco spoke at length about British politics, arguing that the Conservative Party was "behind the times", discussing wages, social security, Socialism and Communism, and urging that wealthy Britons should be prepared to make sacrifices for the working classes. Bessborough challenged some of Franco's understanding of Britain and defended the social record and character of the Conservative Party.
The conversation then moved to Anglo-Spanish relations. Franco argued that Spain and Britain, as Western nations of long tradition, should cooperate in defence of their common civilisation and asked Bessborough to convey his views to friends in England. Bessborough in turn raised anti-British commentary in the Spanish press and asked whether it might be discouraged in the interests of better relations. Franco complained of hostile British attitudes towards Spain, and specifically criticised Reuters and the BBC's Spanish service.
The report ends with Bessborough's striking private judgement that he left the Palace "amazed at the ignorance of the General on the subject of conditions in England", while noting that another visitor considered Franco considerably better informed on Continental Europe and the United States.
An unusually detailed and restricted contemporary record of the Chairman of Rio Tinto's encounter with Franco - and rare with only four copies distributed.