MERMOZ Jean (1901-1936) aviateur.

Lot 194
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Estimation :
1500 - 2000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 659EUR
MERMOZ Jean (1901-1936) aviateur.
Autograph manuscript, Neutrality..., [September or October 1936]; 3 pages in-4 in pencil, with erasures and corrections. Protest against the support of Air France to the Spanish Republicans and the Soviets. Mermoz is indignant about the order placed by the Director of Equipment of Air-France for "12 twin-engine planes destined for the Spanish Popular Front, some of which have already been sent to Spain via Toulouse. The same Director "played the role of technical advisor to the Spanish Popular Front government. His political activity was manifested during frequent visits to Madrid, where his mediation between anarchists, communists and socialists proved to be very effective. It is inadmissible to see a director of a "subsidized and therefore semi-official national airline indulge in such commercial and political traffic when the main concern of the general management of Air-France should be the fear of compromising the fate of its future general policy in Spain. This puts the "French commercial air network" at great risk. In addition, "about thirty unemployed and non-unemployed French pilots hired through professional French aeronautical associations or others were flying war planes in Spain on behalf of the Popular Front. They were largely paid and fought very commercially against the insurgent planes. There was a lot of breakage. The number of Dewoitine fighters in particular is reduced to its simplest expression. The workers in the aeronautical workshops in the Toulouse area were not idle. Toulouse was the major political center for supplying the Spanish Popular Front with aircraft and spare parts. The Air-France workshops themselves were working at full capacity. If the Ministry of the Air Force takes its responsibilities politically, should the General Management of Air-France know its own better and not commit the fate of an affair that must be placed above all internal politics and be absolutely independent of any officially accepted external political action. However, internal bullying is beginning to intensify among the staff against workers and collaborators who are accused of the intolerable professional fault of not being unionists or communists or "sufficiently republican". Mermoz lists the passengers of two "special planes paid for by the Spanish Embassy" and loaned at the request of the Air Ministry to transport them to Madrid or Barcelona, and adds: "The delegates of the Moscow Comintern are delighted with the goodwill, speed and comfort offered to them by the services of the Air-France Company. What a great advertisement for the future". Provenance: MERMOZ archives (sale Artcurial October 11, 2008, M109).
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