Spanish Prime Minister Negrin is fighting on two frontiers. Surrounded by Socialist Democrats like his ministers of the interior, justice and defense, he is fighting to maintain the integrity of Spanish politics against the Soviet Union and the Spanish Communist party. He cannot back openly those who oppose the Communists in public, but he and his ministers are trying what they can to maintain at least the status quo. Many will call him later a Soviet puppet, but Spain is completely depending on the good will of the Soviet Union and Stalin is loosing his temper with the Spanish Republic.

Cause the Communists cannot gain complete control of the government, they try to ignore it wherever they can and often with success.

The Communists themselves seem not aware that they are destroying the Spanish democracy just as the Fascists would like to. They are convinced that their way is the only way to win the war and therefore fight the Fascists as much as they fight their opponents in the Republic itself. While we can blame the Communists for their terror and their Fascist methods, we should not forget that the Communist units in the Republican army where often the best (equipped), most disciplined and most motivated fighters on the front.

In the early morning hours the Fascist battle ship "Baleares" meets unexpected a Republican convoy consisting of several merchant ships convoyed by Republican battle ships. The biggest danger for the convoy is not the Baleares itself, but Fascist airplanes who might approach after their sighting. While the convoy with most of the guarding ships flee, the Republican ships Libertad and Menez Nunez engage the Baleares. After loosing the contact to each other, they meet again in the afternoon, but the Libertad can hit the Baleares twice.

While the Baleares after this waits for another Fascist battle ship, the Canarias, the retreating Republican ships are attacked, without much success, by several Fascist airplanes, including Italian airplanes from the Non-Intervention-Committee blockade on Spain.

(The Libertad and the Baleares will meet again in the night between the 5th and the 6th of march 1938. This time the Baleares is guarding an Fascist convoy and the Republican marine attacking. The Baleares is destroyed and sink in 3 hours, taking 700 sailors to death, the rest is rescued by ships of the British Royal Navy who where watching the battle)

This treaty should enforce the rules of international law regarding shipping in the Mediterranean sea and was meant to stop the submarine attacks against merchant ships not belonging to Spain. Italy and Germany refused to participate, the legal government of Spain was excluded. With "pirate submarines attacking neutral merchant ships" Italy gets a warning that his submarine war on the Republican coast went to far. The British Royal Navy is going to enforce the treaty.