Sociedad de Naciones

Sociedad de Naciones, the League of Nations, is presented as a diplomatic arena whose possibilities depend on who can speak there and what evidence they can bring. In the earlier period, Meg Williams helps the Spanish delegation contest the attempted entry of representatives of coup plotters and monarchists. Later, the prospect of international action through the United Nations becomes bound up with the struggle to expose the Franco regime’s sheltering of Nazi fugitives—and with growing doubts that democratic powers will act on what they learn.

Diplomatic Work in Geneva

Meg’s collaboration gives the Spanish delegation a practical means of resisting the political rehabilitation of its opponents. With her assistance, the delegation repeatedly rejects, protests against, and formally challenges envoys of the coup plotters and monarchists who seek a foothold in Sociedad de Naciones. Her contribution is described not only as useful diplomatic work: in Geneva she also becomes Manolo Arroyo’s closest friend and, in effect, his only family there.

That friendship takes shape against Arroyo’s limited experience of intimacy with women. His childhood closeness to his sister María and to Leo ended when he was seven and went to live with Don Marcos; his subsequent education and working life unfolded largely among men. A brief courtship after university foundered because his demanding academic schedule left too little time for attentive companionship. Those earlier experiences had not prepared him for Meg, whose friendship and professional partnership give his Geneva life a new center.

From the League to the United Nations

The novel later shifts from Sociedad de Naciones to the postwar United Nations, where Spanish Republican representatives assess what international pressure might realistically achieve. In discussion with Pablo de Azcárate and Juan Negrín, Arroyo predicts that the General Assembly may condemn Franco’s government and keep Spain out of the United Nations while Franco remains in power, but stop short of tightening the economic blockade, threatening military action, or invading Spain. Azcárate and Negrín agree that this is the likely outcome.

Arroyo connects that cautious forecast to the changing politics of the Cold War. He argues that public memory of the defeat of Nazi Germany is being recast to magnify the Normandy landings and diminish the Eastern Front, despite the Soviet Union’s decisive role in defeating Hitler. That shift, he warns, benefits Franco, who presents himself as an anticommunist ally at the moment anticommunism is becoming the overriding concern. The diplomatic language of condemnation may therefore coexist with strategic accommodation.

Evidence, Escape Routes, and Political Leverage

The later investigation into Clara Stauffer’s network seeks to turn scattered reports into evidence that could withstand international scrutiny. In the summer of 1945, Stauffer altered her house to include office space, a new telephone line, secretaries, and wardrobes stocked with men’s clothing and shoes. Sole Ruiz observed exhausted, foreign-speaking visitors being fed and given clothes; she suspected they were escapees from European prisons or released prisoners from Nanclares. She also found a German baptismal record in an accidentally unsealed church envelope. These observations suggested an organized system, but did not by themselves establish its full reach or purpose.

Meg brings the evidence to Sal Burnstein, who has been investigating Nazi escape routes without finding proof of a stable organization. The Stauffer operation appears to offer that missing structure. Arroyo and his interlocutors argue that demonstrating Francoist protection of people responsible for war crimes and the genocide of Jews could force the Allies to break relations with Madrid and make it harder for international opinion to accept inaction. But they recognize that a servant’s testimony is not enough: they must verify the fugitives’ identities, establish the role of Stauffer’s Argentine visitors, and prove that her assistance extends beyond providing food and clothing.

The suspected route leads from Spain to Argentina. The investigators believe that Stauffer’s contacts, forged Spanish documentation supported by church baptismal records, and links to state administration help fugitives reach a country whose government cooperates with Franco’s Spain. They stress that this is a strong lead, not yet a proven chain. An infiltrator is needed to establish the connections and produce evidence with the weight required for diplomatic and public pressure.

Limits of International Action

The institution’s significance lies in the contrast between access to an international forum and the ability to make that forum act. In the earlier struggle, coordinated protests help prevent representatives of the coup plotters and monarchists from establishing themselves in Sociedad de Naciones. In the postwar setting, the hoped-for campaign faces a less tractable obstacle: the evidence must be independently confirmed, while the political incentives of powerful states are changing.

Arroyo’s warning is sharpened by reports that Allied authorities may be recruiting former Nazis for anti-Soviet work. If those reports are tolerated because the fugitives are useful, he reasons, Franco’s protection of them may likewise fail to provoke decisive action. Sociedad de Naciones thus belongs to the novel’s wider account of diplomacy as both a tool of resistance and a measure of its limits: protest can obstruct an adversary, but international condemnation does not guarantee intervention.