Ambulance No. 5

Ambulance No. 5 was one of the seven ambulances provided by the Australian Spanish Relief Committees. The CSI insignia on the door indicates it was purchased through the Central Sanitaria Internacional in Paris which coordinated medical aid from foreign countries. Wherever possible, the CSI attempted to maintain contact with supporting committees in foreign countries in order to encourage them to send material and equipment that was most urgently needed by the Spanish army medical corps units at the front.  

The initial objective of the Spanish Relief Committee (SRC), formed in Sydney in August 1936, was to raise money to send medical aid to the Spanish government to support the Republican victory. Phil Thorne, the secretary of the SRC in Sydney, was a member of the Communist Party of Australia, a law clerk and previously an employee of the International Labour Defence (ILD) that had originally been set up by the NSW Labor Council to oppose the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti. Thorne devoted all of his energy and considerable organizational skills to the Sydney committee which became the main centre for Australian fund raising and for the associated program of activities that was shared with other Spanish relief groups.  

In the course of four years of activism in raising public awareness and eliciting donations, the Australian Spanish Relief Committees were able to send four nurses as well as seven ambulances and a modern X-ray unit to the Spanish military medical services. As well, some 10,000 British pounds were spent in purchases of food and medical supplies all of which were delivered to the Spanish government via the Centrale Sanitaire Internationale (CSI) which was established in Paris to co-ordinate medical aid from foreign countries  

At the end of the Spanish Civil War, the Sydney SRC also assisted with the repatriation of a number of Australian International Brigade volunteers, especially the injured, when foreign volunteers were withdrawn from Spain in late October 1938 under the auspices of the League of Nations in the vain attempt to highlight the illegality of the Italian and German involvement in fighting for Franco.  

Consul-General Baeza’s presence in Sydney and his direct access to the Spanish Foreign Service and familiarity with the Spanish government structures and key wartime leaders made for a very orderly process of useful purchases and the timely despatch to Spain of Australian funds.