Transnational Francoism: The British and the Canadian Friends of National Spain (1930s–1950s)

ABSTRACT

This article explores the transnational nature of the British movement Friends of National Spain and contributes to the study of organised pro-Franco support in Great Britain and Canada during the late interwar and the early post-war periods. Specifically, it considers the influence of British reactionary imaginaries upon Montreal’s extreme-right discourse on the Spanish Civil War, Francoism, and democracy. Overall, the paper uses the case of the Canadian Friends of Spain branch to disclose the international significance of the British Friends of National Spain and its branches in England and Scotland.

KEYWORDS:

• Friends of National Spain
• Transnational Francoism
• Britain
• Canada
• Spain
• Christian nationalism

Acknowledgements

I should like Angela Romano, Marcel Martel, Rebecca Lazarenko, Adrian Shubert and Antonio Carzorla for their feedback on earlier versions of this draft. I also would like to thank the Right-Wing Studies Working Group (Berkeley Centre for Right-Wing Studies), for their encouraging comments on the article. Finally, I wish to deeply thank the two anonymous reviewers, whose comments and suggestions helped me highly.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest.

Notes

1. Le Devoir, 20 September 1938. Translated from the original French by the author.

2. See: La Presse, 19 October 1936; L’ordre Nouveau, 20 October 1936; Le nouvelliste, 26 October 1936; L’ordre Nouveau, 20 April 1939; L’illustration nouvelle, 21 April 1939; Catholic Social Guidelines: Courses given in Montreal under the auspices of the École populaire populaire. For more on the Spanish Civil War and its impact in Canada, see: Désy, Si loin, si proche. See also Weisbord, The Strangest Dream.

3. Friends of National Spain’s Foundational Letter, post-dated 27 October 1937, SCW/16/li, People’s History Museum in Manchester (PHM). The London FNS was informally active from May 1937, but officially launched in October 1937. See: FNS circular, 25 February 1938, Friends of National Spain, file February 1938-February 1940, box 13, GRCAA, cited in Edwards, With God on Our Side, 68–9. Prominent signatory members of the Friends of National Spain’s foundational letter include Lord Phillimore (chairman); Victor A. Cazalet, British Conservative Party Member of Parliament for nineteenth years; Henry Page Croft, decorated British soldier and Conservative Party politician, Under-Secretary of State for War under Winston Churchill from 1940 to 1945; Thomas Wodehouse Legh, 2^nd Baron Newton, British diplomat and Conservative politician who served as Paymaster-General during WWI; and Sir Alexander Nairne Stewart Sandeman, 1^st Baronet, Conservative Party politician elected as a Member of Parliament in 1923 and until his death in 1940.

4. See: Edwards, With God on Our Side.

5. See: Dietz, Neo-Tories; Martínez del Campo, Cultural Diplomacy; Griffiths, ‘Anti-Fascism and the Post-War British Establishment’, 247–64; Griffiths, The Pen and the Cross; Bowd, Fascist Scotland; Edwards, With God on Our Side; and Corrin, Catholic Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democracy.

6. For example, see: Beeching, Canadian Volunteers; Zuehlke, The Gallant Cause; Goutor, A Chance to Fight Hitler; Liversedge, Mac-Pap; Howard, MacKenzie-Papineau Battalion; Petrou, Renegades; and Wentzell, Not for King or Country. An exception to this trend is Caroline Désy’s Si Loin, si proche, which focuses on conservative reactions to the Spanish Civil War in Quebec.

7. Whitehead, Perry, Taking America Back to God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, 10.

8. On cultural racism, see: Barker, The New Racism; Gilroy, There Ain’t No Black in the Union Jack; Claire Alexander, “Beyond black,” 552–571, 556.

9. The Montreal branch of the FNS is referred as the ‘Canadian branch’ of the British organisation in Le Devoir, 20 September 1938. On LaPierre’s position as secretary of the Canadian FNS, see: John J. Fitzgerald to Edward H. LaPierre, 22 July 1938, file CORRESPONDENCE FITZGERALD J. J. 1938–1941, vol. 3, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC).

10. On Edward H. LaPierre, see: Fifth Census of Canada, 1911, province of Quebec, district number 183, Poll 37 in Ste. Marie Montreal, row 35; L’illustration nouvelle, 27 March 1936; Le Devoir, 21 March 1936; LaPierre, The Classocracy League of Canada. Order, Justice, Toil. Christian, Corporative, Monarchical, 30 January 1936, file CLOC, vol. 8, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives of Canada (LAC); La Presse, 7 March 1936; La Presse, 9 March 1936; and Le Devoir, 21 March 1936; Social Forum, June 1936.

11. See: Pope Leo XIII, Rerum Novarum—Encyclical Letter of Pope Leo XIII on the Conditions of Labour, 15 May 1891; and Pope Pius XI, Quadragesimo Anno—Encyclical Letter on Reconstructing the Social Order, 15 May 1931.

12. Costa Pinto, Corporatism and Fascism, 6.

13. Gordon, R. S. Interview, April 1972, file Biographical Material 1912–1972, vol. 1, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC).

14. Bossy, Déclaration, thèses, statuts; Bossy, My Present Activities, ca. 1957, file Plans & Resolutions for Life 1932–1958, vol. 1, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC).

15. John J. Fitzgerald to Walter J. Bossy, 24 February 1942, file CORRESPONDENCE FITZGERALD 1938–1941, vol. 3, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); Cosmas W. Krumpelmann, O.S.B., 16 March 1935, file CLASSOCRACY CORRESPONDENCE, vol. 8, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC).

16. On Classocracy League founder Walter J. Bossy publicly supporting Canadian fascists leaders and Nazi simpathizers, namely Adrian Arcand, see: Mochoruk et al. Re-Imagining Ukrainian-Canadians, 283.

17. Illustrated London News, 4 September 1937.

18. Griffiths, Fellow Travellers of the Right, 41. On Classocracy League founder Walter J. Bossy cooperating with Canadian fascists leaders, namely Adrian Arcand, see: Mochoruk et al. Re-Imagining Ukrainian-Canadians, 283.

19. Kent & Sussex Courier, 18 May 1934; The Scotsman, 17 May 1934; Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 9 June 1934.

20. Dietz, Neo-Tories, 167–8.

21. Edwards, With God on Our Side, 56; The Times, 31 December 1936.

22. The Friends of Spain (FS) was announced by liberal intellectual Professor Gilbert Murray and Nobel Prize winner Sir Ralph Normal Angell. This was an organisation which believed that Franco’s propaganda had ‘falsified the character of the Spanish situation’, creating the belief that ‘Spain will be better governed … under General Franco than under the Spanish Government’. See: The Times, 31 December 1936; Nottingham Journal, 10 April 1937.

23. Friends of National Spain, The. Objects of the Society. See also: Dundee Courier, 20 December 1937.

24. Bishop, Russia’s Enemies in Britain, 13; and The Times, 31 May 1937.

25. See: Anonymous, A Survey of Two Years of Progress, 136. The authors of this book were Friends of National Spain Marquis del Moral, Douglas Jerrold, and Luis Bolín. Their pamphlet argued that the introduction of the Spanish Second Republic had brought political and economic chaos, concluding that ‘Spain to-day is in a state of political, economic and social confusion, which is the direct outcome of two years of anarchy and confusion’.

26. Buchanan, Britain and the Spanish Civil War, p. 90.

27. The Times, 24 March 1938; The Times, 30 March 1939; Edwards, With God on Our Side, 71. Edwards argues that ‘the reaction of the members of the FNS to the Spanish Civil War was influenced by their wider concern about what could happen to religion in Britain; and they utilized this conflict to publicise this anxiety’.

28. Bernhard Dietz describes the ‘Neo-Tories’ or non-liberal Tories as those who thought that the conservative party had been corrupted by liberalism. See: Dietz, Neo-Tories, 1.

29. Dietz, Neo-Tories, 170–3.

30. Perthshire Advertiser, 14 May 1938. That the propaganda set by the Nationalist zones in Spain was far less successful in mobilising British opinion than that set by the Republican side is certainly true, as Hugo García overall demonstrates in The Truth About Spain! Mobilising British Public Opinion, 1936–1939. That a large number of British people supported Franco at the time is, however, untrue. In fact, pro-Franco supporters constituted a minority. According to a political poll conducted by the British Institute of Public Opinion in January 1937, 86% of the British regarded the democratically elected government of the Second Spanish Republic as the legitimate government of Spain, while only 14% supported General Franco as the legitimate leader of the country. See: Dietz, Neo-Tories, 170–3.

31. Friends of National Spain Foundational Letter, post-dated 27 October 1937, SCW/16/li, People’s History Museum in Manchester (PHM); Friends of National Spain, The. Objects of the Society. See also: Dundee Courier, 20 December 1937.

32. The Scotsman, 3 March 1938; The Scotsman, 13 June 1938.

33. The Scotsman, 3 March 1938; The Scotsman, 11 March 1938.

34. Griffiths, The Pen and the Cross, 152.

35. Southern Reporter, 29 December 1938.

36. The Scotsman, 21 April 1938; The Scotsman, 4 April 1938. The opinion of Walter Scott expressed in the article of 4 April was praised by FNS London co-founder Luttman-Johnson, who said that ‘The letters by General Sir Walter Maxwell-Scott … will be fully endorsed by anyone who has studied the course of events in Spain’. See The Scotsman, 7 April 1938.

37. The Scotsman, 30 September 1936; The Scotsman, 11 May 1938; Southern Reporter, 29 December 1938; and Bowd, Fascist Scotland, 95–7, 102–4.

38. John J. Fitzgerald to Edward H. LaPierre, 22 July 1938, file CORRESPONDENCE FITZGERALD, J. J. 1938–1941, vol. 3, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC).

39. L’Illustration Nouvelle, 28 October 1938. See more on Thomas Taggart Smyth in: Cooper, “The Origin and Early History”, 18, 122; Grace, The Irish in Quebec, 103–4. On William Henry Atherton, see: “La vie oubliée d’un homme engagé!”, Le Fonds William Henry Atherton, 1967–1950, P0060; and Le Soleil, 7 July 1950, which indicates Atherton was a member of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, an honour bestowed only upon Roman Catholic men and women, and therefore confirms his religious affiliation.

40. L’illustration nouvelle, 27 March 1936; LaPierre to Archeveque Pedagogical Council, 20 November 1937 (?), file CORRESPONDENCE LA PIERRE, EDWARD 1935–1971, vol. 2, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); ‘La vie oubliée d’un homme engagé!’, 2, Le Fonds William Henry Atherton, 1967–1950, P0060; Bossy to Fitzgerald, 30 March 1935, file CORRESPONDENCE FITZGERALD, J. J., 1935–1937, vol. 3, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); Migus, P. M. ‘Ukrainian Canadian Youth,’ 88.

41. John J. Fitzgerald Fitzgerald to León-Mercier Gouin, 23 October 1940, file FITZGERALD CORRESPONDENCE 1938–1941, vol.3, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); León-Mercier Gouin to John J. Fitzgerald, 26 October 1940, file FITZGERALD CORRESPONDENCE 1938–1941, vol.3, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); Walter J. Bossy to León-Mercier Gouin, 29 October 1940, file FITZGERALD CORRESPONDENCE 1938–1941, vol. 3, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); Léon-Mercier Gouin to Walter J. Bossy, 31 October 1940, file FITZGERALD CORRESPONDENCE 1938–1941, vol. 3, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC). On l’Action Corporative, see: Forsey, ‘Clerical Fascism in Quebec’, 90–92; L’ordre nouveau, 5 December 1938; L’ordre nouveau, 5 June 1939; L’ordre nouveau, 5 January 1940. It appears as if this group had been active at least until 1950, see: Progrès du Saguenay, 24 August 1950. Historiography on Canadian history has timidly mentioned l’Action Corporative. For example, see: Bélagner, L’Apolitisme des Idéologies, 322; and Mayeur et al, Histoire du christianisme, 937.

42. L’Illustration Nouvelle, 6 December 1937.

43. The citation translates as follows: ‘branch … the Friends of National Spain in Montreal’. Translated from the original French by the author. See similar reports on the FNS’ activities in Montreal in: Le Devoir, 20 September 1938; Le Devoir, 27 October 1938; Le Devoir, 28 October 1938; L’Illustration, 28 October 1938; La Tribune, 5 November 1938; Le Canada, 13 January 1939; Le Devoir, 27 February 1939; L’Action Catholique, 1 March 1939; L’Action Catholique, 9 March 1939; Le Devoir, 14 March 1939; Le Devoir, 15 May 1939; Le Devoir, 8 July 1939; La Presse, 29 October 1939. Presumably, the Canadian FNS published a magazine called Espagne, a magazine of which unfortunately I have found no trace. See: Le Devoir, 14 February 1939.

44. Le Devoir, 28 October 1938.

45. Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Inter-Agency Working Group, 9 January 1956, Routing and Record Sheet, Form 3P, no. JX-8924, 10. It is worth noting that Bernard Fäy ‘held a position under the Vichy regime collecting derogatory information on the Free Masons in France, which the Germans and the Vichyists used during the German occupation of France’. After the Second World War, Fäy flew to Spain and worked as a ‘political journalist’. While in Spain Fäy helped transfer ‘secret files proving communist infiltration’ in French institutions from France to Spain with the help of friends in France and through the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. See: Declassified and Released by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Collection Sources Methods Exemption 3B2B, February 1948, Form n. 51–59; and 13 January 1955 Memorandum on Bernard FAY, W E/3/FRANCE, the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Inter-Agency Working Group. On Bernard Fäy’s encounter with the London FNS chairman, Lord Godfrey Walter Phillimore, before the former’s travelling to Canada, see The Observer, 20 March 1938, and Le Devoir, 28 October 1938.

46. Le Devoir, 28 October 1938; Le Devoir, 27 October 1938; La Presse, 29 October 1938; L’Action Catholique, 2 December 1938.

47. Le Devoir, 28 October 1938. See information on the above-mentioned attendees in: L’ordre nouveau, 5 December 1938; L’illustration nouvelle, Septembre 21, 1938; Poisson, La Guerre civile espagnole; Patrias, Patriots and Proletarians, 110; Mount, Canada’s Enemies, 93; Spanish Newsletter 1, no. 1 (1 March 1962): 21.

48. Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 24 March 1938.

49. Responsibility for Guernica was a hotly debated topic at the time. See: Southworth, Guernica, Guernica!.

50. Southern Reporter, 29 December 1938; and Derry Journal, 25 March 1938.

51. Copy of speech delivered at a public meeting held by the Friends of National Spain at The Queen’s Hall, London, W.I., 23 March 1938, file NOTES & MEMORANDA c. 1938-c.1965, vol. 11, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); and Derry Journal, 25 March 1938.

52. Belfast Telegraph, 28 June 1938.

53. Le Devoir, 20 September 1938.

54. Le Soleil, 17 August 1938; Le Franc-Parleur, 19 August 1938; Le Devoir, 8 July 1938. Translated from the original French by the author.

55. Derry Journal, 25 March 1938; Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 24 March 1938.

56. Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 24 March 1938.

57. The reference ‘iconic Red Duchess’ is from Bowd, Fascist Scotland, 111. See also: Taunton, Red Britain.

58. Bowd, Fascist Scotland, 98–102.

59. Perthshire Advertiser, 15 September 1937; and Belfast Telegraph, 18 October 1937; Sheffield Independent, 19 October 1937.

60. Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 24 March 1938; and Bowd, Fascist Scotland, 102.

61. Perthshire Advertiser, 22 September 1937.

62. Perthshire Advertiser, 14 October 1937.

63. See note 1 above.

64. John J. Fitzgerald to Walter J. Bossy, 23 February 1939, file CORRESPONDENCE FITZGERALD J. J. 1938–1941, vol. 3, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC).

65. L’Illustration Nouvelle, 23 September 1938.

66. The Scotsman, 3 March 1938; 26 March 1938; and 1 April 1938.

67. What is the Truth about Spain?, file NOTES & MEMORANDA c. 1938-c.1965, vol. 11, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives (LAC).

68. Jerrold, The Future of Freedom, 254.

69. Le Soleil, 4 August 1938; Portsmouth Evening News, 25 August 1938; Croft, ‘Empire Unity,’ 19–29.

70. See note 64 above.

71. The Times, 30 March 1939. See also: Buchanan, Britain and the Spanish Civil War, 194.

72. Douglas Jerrold to Arthur Bryant, 5 July 1939, LHC, Bryant: e/21 1932–54, cited in Dietz, Neo-Tories, 189.

73. Dietz, Neo-Tories, 189–90.

74. The Scotsman, 10 July 1939; and Falkirk Herald, 1 November 1939.

75. The Scotsman, 13 November 1939.

76. John J. Fitzgerald to Walter J. Bossy, 19 February 1943, file CORRESPONDENCE FITZGERALD J.J. 1943, vol. 3, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC).

77. Fitzgerald, Help!, 13.

78. Commonweal, 21 August 1942, 415, 420–1. The Manifesto was formulated by José Antonio de Aguirre (Basque Country, Spain), Charles Boyer (France), Frans J. Van Cauwelaert (Belgium), Marie-Alain Couturier (France), Joseph-Thomas Delos (France), Joseph-Vincent Ducattillon (France), Lady Gainsborough (Great Britain), Sir Philipps Gibbs (Great Britain), Waldemar Gurian (Germany), Oscar Halecki (Poland), Edward Hawks (Great Britain), Nicholas Higgins (Great Britain), Dietrich von Hildebrand (Austria), E. Hula (Austria), Helen Iswolsky (Russia), Henri de Kérillis (France), Otto Michael Knab (Germany), H. J. A. Koevoets (Holland), Aurel Kolnai (Austria), Jacques Maritain (France), Raïssa Maritain (France), René de Messières (France), Thomas Michel (Austria). Among the signatories the manifesto made public there was President of the Belgian House of Representatives Paul Van Zeeland; former Austrian Minister Guido Zernatto; founder of the Italian Popular Party (Christian Democracy) Luigi Sturzo; and a number of European professors, intellectuals, and religious representatives.

79. John J. Fitzgerald to Walter J. Bossy, 22 February 1943, file CORRESPONDENCE FITZGERALD 1943, vol. 3, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); ’Manifesto on the War’, Commonweal, 21 August 1942; and Chappel, Modern Catholic, 142.

80. Commonweal, 21 August 1942, 416–8. Accidentalism, based on Pope Leo XIII encyclicals Diuturnum Illud (1881) and Dei Immortale (1885), teaches that the Church does not prefer one form of government over another as long as the life of the Church remains unaffected. In other words, ‘Catholics should accept any existing authority as legitimate and deserving of Catholics’ loyalty and services as long as the life of the Church remained intact’. During the interwar period, accidentalism helped to establish a modus vivendi with authoritarian political bodies, such as that in Portugal and Spain. ‘The theory behind accidentalism was that forms of government were accidental, of secondary importance, and that the essential issue was the “content” or socio-economic orientation of a regime’. See: Preston, Coming of the Spanish Civil War, 40.

81. Commonweal, 21 August 1942, 416–8.

82. John J. Fitzgerald to Walter J. Bossy, 7 March 1943, file CORRESPONDENCE FITZGERALD 1943, vol. 3, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC).

83. John J. Fitzgerald to Walter J. Bossy, 7 March 1943, file CORRESPONDENCE FITZGERALD 1943, vol. 3, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Post-war Italian Christian Democratic formations would also recast corporatism on a democratic basis. The idea of ‘spiritual union’ of nations and the myth of Christendom has been explored specifically in post-war Europe to explain European integration. For example, see: Coupland, ‘Western Union, “Spiritual Union”,’ 371–2, which explains that ‘by claiming that there was no higher authority than the state, [totalitarianism] denied the sovereignty of the values and laws that the church held to be God-given, transcendent, and universal’. On corporatism becoming an essential part of the discourse on totalitarian legitimisation during interwar Europe, see: Costa Pinto et al. Corporatism and Fascism.

84. Jerrold, The Future of Freedom, 254; and Derby Daily Telegraph, 17 November 1939.

85. Copsey et al, Varieties of Anti-Fascism, 259.

86. Birmingham Mail, 3 February 1944; Liverpool Daily Post, 4 February 1944; and Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 4 February 1944. On allegations regarding Driberg Pincher being a Soviet spy, see: Pincher, Their Trade is Treachery, 80, 115.

87. Shields Daily News, 4 March 1944. The members include Lord Selborne, Minister for Economic Warfare from 1942 to 1945; Sir Robert Hodgson, British Agent in Nationalist Spain from 1937 to 1939 and later the British Chargé d’Affaires to the Nationalist Government in Burgos; and an array of Admirals, Generals and Air Marshals. See: The Times, 14 August 1950; and Socialist Leader, 17 February 1951. On Robert Hodgson as British commercial agent to Insurgent Spain, see: Sherbrooke Daily Record, 29 July 1938.

88. Western Morning News, 21 September 1946.

89. Daily Herald, 8 August 1946.

90. The Scotsman, 8 July 1950; Catholic Standard, 21 July 1950. Hamish Fraser was the only British volunteer to serve on the Brigade’s staff as an officer of SIM, the Spanish secret police then under Soviet control. See: Gallagher, Glasgow, the Uneasy Peace, 230. Hamish Fraser published several books on Spain, namely The Truth about Spain; Spain and the West; and Fatal Star. Fraser supported the ‘full integration of Spain within the Western defense system’, as seen in The Scotsman, 26 December 1950.

91. The Scotsman, 8 July 1950; and Catholic Standard, 21 July 1950.

92. Catholic Standard, 1 December 1950; and The Scotsman, 8 July 1950; Catholic Standard, 21 July 1950.

93. The Times, 14 August 1950.

94. Martínez del Campo affirms the Friends of Spain became the Anglo-Spanish League of Friendship in 1950. See: Martínez del Campo, Cultural Diplomacy, 58.

95. Edward H. LaPierre to Walter J. Bossy, 23 July 1949, file NEW CANADIANS SERVICE BUREAU CORRESPONDENCE RECEIVED ON BUREAU 1948–1949, vol. 5, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC).

96. On the origins and consequences of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution, see: Behiels, Prelude to the Quiet Revolution; Gauvreau, Catholic Origins of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution, 1931–1970; Martel, Le deuil d’un pays imaginé; and Mills, The Empire Within.

97. ‘Thoughts. French-Canadian Revolution vis-à-vis Canada [and the] fight for Equality’, file NOTES & MEMORANDA c. 1938-c. 1965, vol. 11, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); Canada Month, May 1962; and Le nouveau journal, 8 March 1962.

98. Walter J. Bossy to Edward H. LaPierre, 29 April 1948, file NEW CANADIANS SERVICE BUREAU CORRESPONDENCE SENT 1948–1949, vol. 5, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC). On Fitzgerald and Smyth financing the enterprise, see: John J. Fitzgerald to Walter J. Bossy, 3 March 1950, file CORRESPONDENCE FITZGERALD, J. J. 1949–1950, vol. 3, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); John J. Fitzgerald to Lester B. Pearson, 11 June 1951, file CORRESPONDENCE FITZGERALD, J. J. 1951, vol. 3, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); Walter J. Bossy to Taggart T. Smyth, 5 May 1948, file NEW CANADIANS SERVICE BUREAU CORRESPONDENCE SENT 1948–1949, vol. 5, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); and Liste de souscripteurs du Bureau des Neo-Canadiens 1948, 1949–1950, 1951, file NEW CANADIANS SERVICE BUREAU LISTS OF CONTRIBUTORS 1948–1952, vol. 6, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC).

99. On the NCSB promotion of the European and Christian character of a new plural Canada, see for example: The Gazette, 16 May 1949; Le Patrie, 16 May 1949; New Canadians General Information and Program, file NEW CANADIANS SERVICE BUREAU CORRESPONDENCE ON NEW CANADIAN DAY 9 May 1949, 1949, vol. 5, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); and Walter J. Bossy, Un Mouvement, Une Oeuvre, Walter J. Bossy.

100. Walter J. Bossy, Un mouvement, Une Oeuvre, Walter J. Bossy, pp. 15, 18–19, 23 62; Walter J. Bossy to Press Editors, June 1970, file INST. OF THE CANADIAN ETHNIC MOSAIC CONF. NOTES ON SOCIAL CENTRE ON ILE BIZARD. NOTES ON SOCIAL CENTRE ON ILE BIZARD 1963–1970, vol. 7, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); and The Icelandic Canadian, Winter 1970.

101. ‘An Open Letter’, Walter J. Bossy to André Laurendeau, 30 July 1963, file INST. OF THE CANADIAN ETHNIC MOSAIC CONF. NOTES ON ‘OPEN LETTER’ 1963, vol. 7, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC).

102. Edward H. LaPierre to Walter J. Bossy, 11 August 1963, file INST. OF THE CANADIAN ETHNIC MOSAIC CONF. NOTES ON ‘OPEN LETTER’ 1963, vol. 7, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC).

103. ‘An Open Letter’, Walter J. Bossy to André Laurendeau, 30 July 1963, file INST. OF THE CANADIAN ETHNIC MOSAIC CONF. NOTES ON ‘OPEN LETTER’ 1963, vol. 7, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); Walter J. Bossy to André Laurendeau, 28 August 1963, file Bossy, W. J. on Multiculturalism, vol. 8, MG31 D58, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); 4 November 1963, First of Four Talks, file INT. OF THE CANADIAN ETHNIC MOSAIC CONF. RADIO PROGRAM ON CFMB 1963, vol. 7, MG30 C72 Walter J. Bossy, Library and Archives Canada (LAC); and CBC Digital Archives, ‘Canada is actually “tricultural”’, Sunday Morning Magazine Radio Program, 10 November 1963, 2:21ʹ, 1:07ʹ-2:21ʹ [Accessed in May 2020].

104. Copsey et al, Varieties of Anti-Fascism, 258.

105. The Times, 14 August 1950; Socialist Leader, 17 February 1951. On Robert Hodgson as British commercial agent to Insurgent Spain, see: Sherbrooke Daily Record, 29 July 1938.

106. Hodgson, Spain Resurgent, 9, 160, 7.

107. Jerrold, The Future of Freedom, 254.

108. Derry Journal, 24 January 1951.

109. Catholic Standard, 14 March 1952; and Catholic Standard, 31 October 1952. Hamish Fraser referred to Ireland, Portugal, and Spain, as the countries that could lead a worldwide Christian revolution against the threat of Communism.

110. Although post-war Canada does not seem to have experienced the reorganisation of Francoist groups, there were small-scale campaigns, mostly in the province of Quebec, that demanded that Canada should support Spain in her economic recovering as well as in her being incorporated to the United Nations. These campaigns were justified on the grounds of Franco being crucial for the world’s battle against Communism and for the sake of Christian civilisation. See L’Etoile du Nord, 22 June 1950; Le devoir, 24 February 1953; and La presse, 16 August 1952.

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Bàrbara Molas

Bàrbara Molas is a PhD candidate in the History Department at York University (Toronto) and Head of Doctoral Fellows at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR). She studied World History (MA) at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona and at the Freie Universität Berlin. Bàrbara has contributed to the study of transnational Francoism, neo-Francoism, and the history of far-right ideas on European and Canadian cultural integration. At York University, she studies far-right understandings of Canadian multiculturalism (1930s-1960s). She has published in Active History, Globe and Mail, and Rantt Media, among others.