If there was an event that demonstrated the fascist menace before the destruction of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, it was the Spanish Civil War. The conflict roused the passions of an entire generation of left-wing intellectuals, many of whom fought in the conflict on the Loyalist side as part of the International Brigade and other groups. Martha Gellhorn, a foreign reporter and Ernest Hemingway's third wife, later reflected on the conflict: "We knew, we just knew that Spain was the place to stop Fascism. This was it. It was one of those moments in history where there was not doubt." [1] Albert Camus added to this viewpoint by writing that "The tragedy of Spain remains to haunt the conscience of the world." [2] He was not the only one holding this viewpoint. Between 1936 and 1939, several left-wing intellectuals fought on the side of the loyalists. Two great books, George Orwell's A Homage to Catalonia (1938) and Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940), were written, and Pablo Picasso's great masterpiece, "Guernica" (1937) was painted. Spain became the first major rallying cry against fascism, as it greatly affected the world, as well as the Labour Party.
After 1937, the Party began to demand that the policy of non-intervention be cast aside, and the the arms embargo against the Spanish Government be lifted. Attlee and others castigated the National Government for "conniving" [3] at the prolonging of the conflict, and for acquiescing in the face of clandestine Italian and German aggression. When the Foreign Secretary [Anthony Eden] resigned in February 1938, due to differences in foreign policy between himself and the Prime Minister [Neville Chamberlain], Clement Attlee [the Party leader] gave a major speech in Parliament in which he attacked the Prime Minister, saying:
Apparently anything [any type of agreement] is good enough for him. He comes down in triumph to-day and says: "I have a promise that Italy will move her troops out of Spain." We have become fat on promises during the last 18 months. In regard to Spain, we have had ordinary agreements and gentlemen's agreements. I do not quite know what the diference is, but neither sort is kept.
[4]
At the end of the speech he accused the National Government of "betraying the cause of peace and the security of [the] country." [5] Attlee's attacks did not subside after this speech. In the debate a few weeks later on the 1938 White Paper on Defence, he lamented that
