SECRET ARMIES
54
after four, they concluded that it would be
unwise for them personally to take any steps to counteract the
anti-fascist activities that it would be wiser to work indirectly
through fascist organizations like the Confederation of the
Middle Class and its associated bodies. A few days earlier each
which lasted until
minister
had received a
letter
from
several organizations allied
with the Confederation of the Middle Class.
to help the
Berlin-Tokyo-Rome combination.
It
A
was an
offer
free translation
of the passage which the ministers discussed (from the letter
received by the Japanese minister which I now have) follows:
"We,
exactly like the representatives of the three powers, love
sacrifice to prevent the
our Fatherland and are disposed to any
intervention of these elements [Jews and Communists] in our
have begun to have great
politics, in which, unfortunately, they
influence. And we will employ, and are employing, all legal
methods of struggle
The phrase
who suggest illegal
to
make an end
methods"
"legal
activity.
is
The
of
them."
frequently employed by those
German Minister knew that
Union Nacionalista Mexicana, one of the signers of the letter,
was run by Escobar, and that Carmen Calero, 12 Place de la
Concepcion, Mexico City, an elderly woman physician active in
the
many
fascist organizations,
was a member of the Partido Anti-
reelectionista Action, another of the signers.
One month later the various fascist groups got enough money
to launch an intensive pro-fascist drive under the usual guise of
fighting
Communism.
tionalist
Na
Youth of Mexico, which
Jose"
Luis Noriega, Secretary of the
also signed the letters to the
States to organize an anti-Cardenas
United
At the same time, Carmen Calero left on a mysterious
mission to Puebla on November 12, 1937, with a letter from
ministers, left for the
drive.
Escobar to J. Trinidad Mata, publisher of the local paper
Avance. She carried still another letter addressed to their
"dis
tinguished
comrades,"
without mentioning names, and signed by