Executive for his services. Then at the beginning of 1943, now Major Steer, he was sent to India, to take part in the campaign to recover Burma from the Japanese. His inventive use of propaganda and his active participation in a number of clashes with the enemy saw him promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. He was killed, not in action but in an accident, on Christmas Day 1944, when his jeep went off the road when he was driving to watch the Christmas Day sports at his training camp. 73 It was a tragic irony that a man who had taken so many risks in such great causes should die in so banal a manner. The obituary in
The Times
recalled his exploits in Burma but not his service in Spain or Ethiopia, but commented on his books: ‘Combining the research of the scholar with the experience ofthe fighter and the faith of the idealist, he was as frank and accurate in his writings as he was vivid and he has left a record of service to his country the cessation of which will be regretted by fellow journalists and soldiers alike.’ 74
Despite publishing five important books and a military career that saw him compared with Lawrence of Arabia, Steer is remembered, most of all, for the crucial despatch from Guernica which blew the whistle on Nazi involvement in the Spanish Civil War. From the time that he became a war correspondent in 1935, Steer had made it his business to alert the world to the imperialist ambitions and ruthless aggression of fascism. During the Italian invasion of Abyssinia and in Spain, his commitment to an apparently lost cause led him to a level of involvement that went far beyond the duties of a war correspondent. Steer’s book is not just about the bombing of Guernica, but is a complete account of the entire Basque campaign. In that sense, it remains one of the ten or so most important books about the Spanish Civil War. It is also a crucial element of Steer’s series of books about fascist aggression and atrocity. The book is one of the most moving and authentic tributes to the Basque people, to their suffering and their courage in the fight against Franco and his Nazi and Fascist allies. Moreover, despite his empathy with the PNV, the words of Steer summing up the Basque part in the Spanish Civil War capture the tragedy and dignity of an entire people:
After all, the Basques were a small people, and they didn’t have many guns or planes, and they did not receive any foreign aid, and they were terribly simple and guileless and unversed in warfare; but they had, throughout this painful civil war, held high the lantern of humanity and civilisation. They had not killed, or tortured, or in any way amused themselves at the expense of their prisoners. In the most cruel circumstances, they had maintained liberty of self-expression and faith. They had scrupulously and zealously observed all the laws, written and unwritten, which enjoin on man a certain respect for his neighbour. They had made no hostages; they had responded to the inhuman methods of those who hated them by protest,nothing more. They had, as far as anyone can in war, told the truth and kept all their promises. 75
George Steer wrote: ‘In this war, the Basque fought for tolerance and free discussion, gentleness and equality.’ 76 He died in a later war for those same values. Next to his body was found his most precious possession, a gold watch given to him by José Antonio de Aguirre, inscribed ‘To Steer from the Basque Republic’.
PART THREE
AFTER THE WAR
11
A Lifetime’s Struggle: Herbert Rutledge
Southworth and the Undermining of the
Franco Regime
I n 1963, the Franco dictatorship set up a special department to counter the subversive effect of the work of a man called Herbert Rutledge Southworth. Yet, until that date, hardly anyone had heard of Herbert Southworth outside of the small circle of Jay Allen, Louis Fischer and Constancia de la Mora. Yet his published work struck so hard at the dictatorship’s complex justification of its own existence
The Times
recalled his exploits in Burma but not his service in Spain or Ethiopia, but commented on his books: ‘Combining the research of the scholar with the experience ofthe fighter and the faith of the idealist, he was as frank and accurate in his writings as he was vivid and he has left a record of service to his country the cessation of which will be regretted by fellow journalists and soldiers alike.’ 74
Despite publishing five important books and a military career that saw him compared with Lawrence of Arabia, Steer is remembered, most of all, for the crucial despatch from Guernica which blew the whistle on Nazi involvement in the Spanish Civil War. From the time that he became a war correspondent in 1935, Steer had made it his business to alert the world to the imperialist ambitions and ruthless aggression of fascism. During the Italian invasion of Abyssinia and in Spain, his commitment to an apparently lost cause led him to a level of involvement that went far beyond the duties of a war correspondent. Steer’s book is not just about the bombing of Guernica, but is a complete account of the entire Basque campaign. In that sense, it remains one of the ten or so most important books about the Spanish Civil War. It is also a crucial element of Steer’s series of books about fascist aggression and atrocity. The book is one of the most moving and authentic tributes to the Basque people, to their suffering and their courage in the fight against Franco and his Nazi and Fascist allies. Moreover, despite his empathy with the PNV, the words of Steer summing up the Basque part in the Spanish Civil War capture the tragedy and dignity of an entire people:
After all, the Basques were a small people, and they didn’t have many guns or planes, and they did not receive any foreign aid, and they were terribly simple and guileless and unversed in warfare; but they had, throughout this painful civil war, held high the lantern of humanity and civilisation. They had not killed, or tortured, or in any way amused themselves at the expense of their prisoners. In the most cruel circumstances, they had maintained liberty of self-expression and faith. They had scrupulously and zealously observed all the laws, written and unwritten, which enjoin on man a certain respect for his neighbour. They had made no hostages; they had responded to the inhuman methods of those who hated them by protest,nothing more. They had, as far as anyone can in war, told the truth and kept all their promises. 75
George Steer wrote: ‘In this war, the Basque fought for tolerance and free discussion, gentleness and equality.’ 76 He died in a later war for those same values. Next to his body was found his most precious possession, a gold watch given to him by José Antonio de Aguirre, inscribed ‘To Steer from the Basque Republic’.
PART THREE
AFTER THE WAR
11
A Lifetime’s Struggle: Herbert Rutledge
Southworth and the Undermining of the
Franco Regime
I n 1963, the Franco dictatorship set up a special department to counter the subversive effect of the work of a man called Herbert Rutledge Southworth. Yet, until that date, hardly anyone had heard of Herbert Southworth outside of the small circle of Jay Allen, Louis Fischer and Constancia de la Mora. Yet his published work struck so hard at the dictatorship’s complex justification of its own existence
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