Thanks for this link. The prog. surmises a Govt. blind eye to well-known pilots delivering (a Dragon and a Monospar) to Franco, with (convoluted) combat potential despite its ban on arms sales to Spain. Anthony Beevor (he of Stalingrad, Berlin &tc, thorough, yet gripping works of Military History) was succinct on the Bolshie Threat. Jack Jones, wounded in Spanish Republican Service, much later Gen Sec. UK Trades Union Congress, said straightout that the Right saw fascism as bulwark against revolution.

Quite. That is what “appeasement” was all about. (e.g: that is why Henry Ford funded Hitler and refused to licence-build Merlin in US. UK Ford overrode him). Stalin knew: as rump Czech sank 3/39 he told his Party Congress that UK/France ‘“connived at aggression (due to their desire)” to push Japan/Germany to war with (him). PM Baldwin told WSC in 1937: “If there is any fighting in Europe to be done I should like to (see) Bolshies (&) Nazis doing it.” Just before Barbarossa, Joe said: UK wants “our weakening”. It’s the greatest What If..?
Sources: R.Overy,Russia’s War,A.Lane,98,Pp43/168; H.M-Hyde, Br.Air Policy Between the Wars,76,Heinemann,P389; S.Wichert,The Br.Left, in WJ.Mommsen/L.Kettenacker(Ed),The Fascist Challenge & Politics of Appeasement,83,Unwin,P127.