When Benito Mussolini gained power in Italy he began to develop contacts with right-wing forces in Spain. In March 1934 Mussolini met a group of Spanish politicians and generals in Rome who were opposed to the Second Republic. At the meeting Mussolini promised the group 10,000 rifles, 10,000 hand grenades, 200 machine-guns and a million pesetas in cash in event of a military uprising.
On the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War Mussolini failed to keep his promise of immediate aid. After a week of negotiations he agreed to sell the Nationalists twelve Savoia S81 bombers.
Leon Blum, the prime minister of the Popular Front government in France, initially agreed to send aircraft and artillery to help the Republican Army. However, after coming under pressure from Stanley Baldwin and Anthony Eden in Britain, and more right-wing members of his own cabinet, he changed his mind.
Baldwin and Blum now called for all countries in Europe not to intervene in the Spanish Civil War. In September 1936 a Non-Intervention Agreement was drawn-up and signed by 27 countries including Germany, Britain, France, the Soviet Union and Italy.
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