Visit to Frank RYAN, 16th June 1939

Your 244/8A¹

Further to my minute of 7th inst.², your telegram No. 28³ sent at 2.55 p.m. on 12th was delivered here at 6 p.m. on 13th; I wrote on the 13th to the Inspector of Prison Camps in Burgos in order to fix a date for my visit to Frank Ryan; I telephoned to his office on 14th but he was out; I telephoned again on 15th only to be told that the Inspector only dealt with the Concentration Camps, and I was referred to the General commanding the Sixth Region, i.e. General Lopez Pinto. I could not get in touch with him, so I decided to call up the Director of the Prison, who was quite agreeable to my calling there the next day at noon.

I left San Sebastian by car at 8 a.m. I reached Burgos at 11.30 a.m. with the intention of calling first on General Lopez Pinto - now our main hope; unfortunately, he had left the same morning for Bilbao, where he will remain till 23rd June; Meade (with whom I am trying to keep in touch by telephone) is also in Bilbao and will certainly see him there; I am leaving it to him to decide as to the most opportune moment for him to plead Ryan's cause, or to suggest a meeting with myself with that end in view.

The Central Prison is a palatial-looking building, built about 8 years ago, about 3 miles on the far side of Burgos. The chief warder was at the main gate; he shook hands with me, perhaps mistaking me for some other friend; the Director (Antonio Crejo) was awaiting me in his office; I arrived punctually at noon; I formed a very favourable opinion of him; we talked for about 20 minutes and he gave me much useful information.

The Prison usually holds 1000 or at the outside 1500 condemned prisoners; at present there are 4500; there is no rule of silence; the prisoners spend all day, from 6.30 or 7 a.m. till 8.30 or 9 p.m., in the open court-yard, where their meals are served and where they mix freely with one another until bedtime arrives; they sleep in large dormitories, in each of which there is accommodation for from 100 to 300 men.

The Director accepted from me for Frank Ryan the parcel of clothes that accompanied your minute (244/8A) of June 5th⁴, 300 cigarettes (which are not usually allowed to reach prisoners), some insecticide powder which I thought might be welcome and a sum of Ptas.150. He agreed that much time would be saved if I were to send future remittances direct to him rather than through the Red Cross. Parcels of any kind are always examined, but the Director told me that on this occasion this would not be done. He said there would be no objection to letting me know the charges against Frank Ryan, if these were in his file, but that, owing to pressure of work, it often happened that the sentence alone was communicated to him and not the reasons for the sentence; he showed me the file of another prisoner setting forth many pages of charges; he called for Ryan's file (expediente) and found that it did not even mention any judgment against him; he explained that this meant that officially, so far as the Director was advised, he was just under preventive arrest, after trial; the document stated that he had been tried on 15th June 1938 under a 'sumarisimo de urgencia 1695 de 1938' by the 'Juzqado Militar No. 4'; the Director allowed me to take a note of this, as being a most important reference in connection with any efforts to secure Ryan's liberation; I had already got on well enough to be able to confide to him my intention to appeal direct to General Lopez Pinto for his liberty; he told me that the Auditoria de Guerra, Burgos, would be the body to deal with the matter, and that the Auditor was Coronel Don José Casado, who would of course be in close touch with the General; the General commanding each military region has a similar body to assist and advise him.

The Director authorised me to visit the prison and Ryan whenever I wished to do so; there would be no objection to Miss Ryan paying him a visit, accompanied by me; conversations must always take place in Spanish, in the presence of a warder, but he would accept my guarantee that no prohibited subjects of conversation would be broached, and, exceptionally in this case, the conversation could take place in English. No reference should be made to the accusations made against him, as this would lead to a questioning of the justice of the sentence.

The chief warder was then summoned and told to accompany me to his office and to bring Ryan to see me there; this was a special privilege as the Director did not want to make me mix with others in the prison parlour, where, I understand, prisoners are separated from visitors by a grill.

Frank Ryan came into the warder's office when I was there, and we shook hands with each other; the good-hearted warder allowed us to speak in English, and even left the room once or twice during our conversation, which lasted at least an hour, and of course I did not take any notes. He told me the prison doctor had already advised him of my visit.

I enquired first about his health, and he said this was excellent, except for his heart; he did not want his family to know about this as it might alarm them needlessly; 4 or 5 years ago he discovered that he had an enlarged heart, but never paid any attention to it until he was in Spain; before the fighting on the Ebro, he was advised by a doctor not to subject it to strain and he had been taking care of himself; recently he had had palpitations, and had been in and out of the infirmary several times, but they were so busy there that he never had his temperature taken, and as soon as his pulse was beating all right out he had to go to make room for others; the assistant doctors were very good, however, and now he was allowed to have longer spells in the infirmary; this meant better food and also less strain, as otherwise he would have to be standing to attention for hours at a time; he thought perhaps I might be able to get some cheese, sausages, &c. sent to him from time to time. He said that a fellow-prisoner, a doctor, had examined him and assured him that the valvular trouble of his heart was not dangerous and could be cured with rest and good food; he said he also had high blood pressure, but remarked laughingly that it was not the prison diet that would make that worse.

His first question to me, however, was to know whether his father and mother were in good health; I at once assured him that they were, and I hope I told him the truth. He thought it would be better not to be visited by his sister, and asked me to so advise her, that the journey would be a costly one and that he was really feeling very fit and in good form in spite of everything; he said I could indeed see that myself, even though he was perhaps a trifle thinner than he used to be. The Director subsequently informed me that it would be beyond his power to allow any women to have a private conversation with a prisoner, such as I had, and remarked that it might be somewhat painful for Miss Ryan to see her brother in the regulation manner.

He had had a couple of teeth out the previous day and the dentist had offered to fit him out with 16 new teeth for 563 pesetas; he asked me to explain this to his family, saying that he could not do better elsewhere and that he never might have so much time and leisure at his disposal again; I told him to accept the dentist's offer and to ask latter to send me the bill, which I would pay and recover directly from his family subsequently.

Prisoners are not allowed to receive newspaper, novels or other reading matter, although they get a prison newspaper; Ryan told me he sometimes gleaned information from latter by reading between the lines; he asked me to get permission to send him an advanced Spanish Grammar. I subsequently got this permission from the Director.

He wants photographs of his family and even of his friends; the Director says that regulations forbid any other photos than those of father, mother, sisters and brothers.

He asked for the latest news from Ireland and enquired for the name of the President; when I told him Dr. Hyde was President, he remarked that they used to be good friends. He asked particularly for news of the Mulcahys of Sligo, which I was glad to be able to give him. He said he was well-treated, that the chief-warder was a decent fellow, and spoke well of the Director who, he said, was a recent arrival. They respected him (Ryan) in the prison, and he had never been punished, although he had at times intervened between subordinate warders and prisoners whom they were maltreating - much to the astonishment of the warders.

He was certain that my visit would have a very good effect on the attitude of the officials towards himself. I expressed the hope that I might be able to see him again soon, perhaps early in July.

He had learned only a few days ago that when he was first made prisoner he had been condemned to death by a drum-head court-martial and was to have been shot the following morning, but that two Italian officers came and took charge of him, saying that he would have to be exchanged against an Italian officer. I am not sure whether it was then, or a day or two later in Zaragoza, that a correspondent of the Catholic Universe, London, tried to intervene in his favour; he does not know the name of the correspondent, but is very grateful to him. He told me that he had been let down in some way by a higher officer prior to his capture, that he had been slightly wounded in the leg and so could not escape, but that he would certainly have been captured a few days later anyway.

No charges were made against him when he was tried on 15th June 1938, but a long letter was read out to him as evidence of character; he says the letter came from Ireland and he believes it was written by Miss Aileen O'Brien or by a Miss Godden, and that O'Duffy knew him too well to be the author of the many inaccuracies in detail; he thinks the letter was based largely on Hogan's⁵ 'Could Communism come to Ireland?' He says the letter accused him of practically everything that had happened in Ireland since the civil war or earlier and affirmed that he was the assassin of O'Higgins⁶, Somerville⁷ and others; he also remarked that Somerville was the brother-in-law of Sir Robert Hodgson⁸, who was supposed by some to be pleading in favour of Ryan; latter mentioned that some newspaper cuttings had been produced at his trial, but he did not know what was in them. He realised that his case was hopeless and that he was going to be condemned to death; his counsel spoke in his defence and pleaded for mercy, saying that Ryan had three sisters who were nuns; he was greatly puzzled as to how his counsel could have got that information. Asked if he had anything to say, he assured the court that, in going to Spain as a recruit for the Republican forces, he had gone to assist a Government recognised by the Irish Government and that he had broken no international law; he asked whether he was being tried for alleged offences in Ireland or in Spain, and stated that, if it was a crime to have fought in the republican ranks then he admitted the crime and had nothing more to say and they could do as they pleased; but first he explained that his chief reason for going to Spain was that O'Duffy was misrepresenting Ireland, describing him more or less as a British agent. Ryan says that, as he left the court, he was saluted respectfully by civil guards and others present. When he was taken to the Central Prison he was kept handcuffed there for 9 hours.

He told me there were three Poles in the prison who were anxious to get a visit from a Polish Consul or from the Minister, and that there was a Welshman there named Jones who was getting in touch with the British.

He enquired whether there was any likelihood of his recovering his liberty perhaps in say 7 or 8 months' time; all I could reply was to urge him to have patience and courage, though this advice was no doubt unnecessary, and to remember that he was not forgotten and would not be, and that a new effort was about to be made.

A fellow-prisoner with whom he has struck up friendship, and who seems to be somewhat privileged, is Sanchez Guerra, former Governor of some island off the coast of Africa, who was condemned to 12 years' imprisonment on setting foot unsuspectingly in nationalist Spain; Sanchez Guerra was Secretary to the President of the Republic and received me in that capacity when I presented my credentials in Madrid in 1935.

After bidding goodbye to Ryan, I again saw the Director, and learned from him that all letters from and to prisoners were first sent to the Jefatura del Servicio Nacional de Prisiones, Ministerio de Justicia, Madrid (this branch of the Department of Justice having now been transferred from Vitoria to Madrid), and that it was entirely a matter for its discretion as to whether such letters should go forward. I am not at all sure that permission can be obtained there for Ryan to communicate freely with his family.

I left the prison at 2 p.m., having thanked the Director for his kind reception, having assured him that I was much more favourably impressed in every way than I had ventured to anticipate would be the case, and having announced my intention of paying him other visits; he accompanied me to the gate, and I was saluted by the men on duty there.

I was nearly forgetting to mention that the Director informed me that prisoners could not receive food parcels unless they were completely fed from outside; this was a very strict rule recently imposed because of certain abuses; that was why I saw so many women outside the prison on their daily errand; but he would speak to the doctor and see what could be done for Ryan in the infirmary, where milk and other special food were available.

I arrived back in San Sebastian at 6.30 p.m.

To sum up:

1. The visit was a satisfactory and useful one.
2. The knowledge acquired that there were no definite charges and that the main justification for Ryan's detention is the 'evidence of character' contained in a letter from Ireland clears the way for the approach which I hope to make to General Lopez Pinto - although I have to be careful how I use that knowledge.
3. The reason why the British agent used any influence he had against Ryan can perhaps be explained by me to General Lopez Pinto.
4. In the circumstances, there does not seem to be any insuperable difficulty in the path of the desired measure of clemency, for which the goodwill of General Lopez Pinto must first be secured.

My account for travelling expenses will follow.