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Kleinwort Benson - Wikipedia

The earliest known Kleinwort to go into banking was 24-year-old Heinrich Kleinwort, a grandfather of Sir Alexander Drake Kleinwort, 1st Baronet.[1] In 1786, Heinrich set up a partnership with Otto Mueller in Holstein to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleinwort…

finance trade with England.[2] Kleinworts established a successful trading business in Cuba, profiting from the expansion of the H. Upmann and Sons cigar business.[3] Edward Cohen and James Drake joined the firm in the 1830s and for a while it was known as Drake, Kleinwort and

Cohen; it was then renamed Kleinwort, Sons and Company in the 1880s.[4]

The firm helped finance Francisco Franco's coup d'état in Spain by approving a credit of 800,000 pounds at 4% interest on 15 September 1937. A month later Kleinworts agreed another loan of 1,500,000 pounds

sterling at 3%. The Spanish coup of July 1936 (Spanish: Golpe de Estado de España de julio de 1936) was a nationalist and military uprising that was designed to overthrow the Spanish Second Republic but precipitated the Spanish Civil War; Nationalists fought against Republicans

for control of Spain. The coup itself was organised for 18 July 1936, although it started the previous day in Spanish Morocco, and would result in a split of the Spanish military and territorial control, rather than a prompt transfer of power. Although drawn out, the resulting

war would ultimately lead to one of its leaders, General Francisco Franco was put in informal command of the military effort against the Asturian miners' revolt of 1934 during which striking labourers had occupied several towns and the provincial capital.[13] Around 30,000

workers had been called to arms in ten days.[14] Franco's men, some brought in from Spain's Army of Africa,[15] acted horrifically by killing men, women and children and carrying out summary executions when the main cities of Asturias had been retaken.[16] About 1,000 workers and

about 250 government soldiers were killed,[17] which marked the effective end of the republic. On 12 July 1936, in Madrid, a member of the Falange, Jorge Bardina, murdered Lieutenant José Castillo of the Assault Guards police force.[39] Castillo was a member of the

Socialist Party. The next day, members of the Assault Guards arrested José Calvo Sotelo, a leading Spanish monarchist and a prominent parliamentary conservative; the original target had been Gil Robles, but he could not be found. The conspiracy relied mostly on mid-range staff

and line officers; they were expected to take control of the garrisons and either overpower their seniors or persuade them to join. In some districts, like Zaragoza or Seville, the conspiracy network was well developed, and Mola was confident of success there. In other

districts, like Valencia or La Coruña, the network was sketchy, and the plotters took into account a possible failure. As had been planned, Cabanellas remained in command of the Zaragoza military district after the successful coup. In 1934 he was a delegate of the

Radical Republican Party. In July 1936 he was head of 5ª Organic division based in Zaragoza, where on 19 July he declared his support for the Nationalists. Due to his seniority, he was president of the Junta de Defensa Nacional that on 21 September 1936 proclaimed

Francisco Franco head of government and Generalissimo - though Cabanellas was the only one who dissented to this choice.[3] He warned his fellow rebel generals that "You don’t know what you have done because you don’t know him as do I, given that he was under my command in

the African Army… If you give him Spain, he is going to believe that it is his and he will not allow anyone to replace him in the war or after it, until his death."[4] He was later Chief inspector of the Army until his death.
The Army of Africa was to play a key part during the

Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939. Along with other units in the Spanish Army, the Army of Africa rose against the Second Spanish Republic and took part in the Spanish coup of July 1936 on the side of the Nacionales. On 18 July 1936, General Francisco Franco assumed the supreme

command over this force.

Between 29 July and 5 August 1936 1,500 members of the Army of Africa were accordingly transported to mainland Spain in a bold airlift led by Junkers transport planes supplied by Nazi Germany. The fascist régime of the Kingdom of Italy provided

Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 bombers to provide air cover for merchant ships carrying 3,000 soldiers and equipment from Morocco on 5 August. Thereafter daily flights continued until about 8,000 Moroccans and legionaries, with supporting artillery, were gathered at Seville

During the 1940s detachments from the Tiradores de Ifni garrisoned the Canary Islands, while a mounted Guardia Mora ("Moorish Guard") undertook ceremonial duties in Madrid. The Guardia Mora (Moorish Guard), officially the Guardia de Su Excelencia el Generalísimo (En: The Guards

of His Excellency the Generalissmo) was Francisco Franco's personnel ceremonial escort. it was formed in February 1937 from personnel drawn from the Guardia Civil in Tétouan and the II Tabor of Grupo de Regulares de Tetuan No.1. Their white and red hooded cloak, based on the

djellaba, was worn over the white parade uniform of Regulares officers.[Upon Franco’s death and the ascension of King Juan Carlos I as the head of state, the guard regiment was integrated into the new army under the king and formed the basis of the "Regiment of the Royal

Guard" (Regimiento de la Guardia Real); the modern day Guardia Real

The history of the Royal Guard dates back to medieval times. The senior unit and one of the oldest body guards in the world is the Corps of Gentlemen of the Chamber, the Monteros de Espinosa, dating to 1006 and

created by Sancho Garcia of the House of Castile.
Even before the time of the first monarch of Spain, the Catholic Monarchs formed the group called the Guardias Viejas de Castilla ("Old Guards of Castile"). Later on, the first monarch of Spain, Charles V ordered that a company

of those guards to reside and continuously stand guard in his palace, denominating it Los Cien Continos ("The Hundred Contines").

Babel Tower, by Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Dutch Allegory to the Habsburg Emperor, escorted by his castilian Monteros.

With time, their functions became less military and mostly like the Gentlemen at Arms and the Yeomen of the Guard limited to Palace duty. The last time they were in campaign escorting their Monarch in the field was in the side of Carlos VII during the Carlist Wars.

Carlos organized and led the Third Carlist War. Between 1872 and 1876 he effectively controlled much of peninsular Spain, having as much legitimacy as the Presidents of the First Republic. In 1859, Giuseppe Garibaldi confronted Austrian forces led by Field Marshal-Lieutenant

Carl Baron Urban near Varese. Also, it was here where Alessandro Marchetti's Savoia-Marchetti SM.93 made his first test flights. Flight testing was carried out under the aegis of the Luftwaffe and despite the good performance, the prone position was found to be unsatisfactory,

being uncomfortable and restricting rearward vision. The programme was halted by the German control Commission that was running weapons production in the Repubblica Sociale Italiana - RSI after the 1943 armistice.[1][2]

Specifications (SM.93)
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Data from Italian Civil and

Military aircraft 1930-1945[1] Plane Facts: Unique dive bomber[The fall of the Fascist regime in Italy and the disbandment of the MVSN saw the establishment of the Republican National Guard (Guardia Nazionale Repubblicana or GNR), the Republican Police Corps (Corpo di Polizia

Repubblicana) and the emergence of the Black Brigades (brigate nere). The GNR consisted of former MVSN, carabinieri, soldiers, Italian Africa Police and others still loyal to the Fascist cause, while the Republican Police Corps was the successor agency of the Public security

complex formed by the Directorate of Public Security and the Public Security Agents Corps. The Black Brigade was formed from the new fascist party members both young and old. Both units fought alongside Nazi and Schutzstaffel (SS) counterparts in an extensive anti-partisan war.

The Black Brigades committed many atrocities in their fight against the Italian resistance movement and political enemies. On 15 August 1944, the GNR became a part of the Army. In 1927 it created the newsreel Giornale Luce [it], intended to be screened compulsorily in all

Italian cinemas before the screening of their films. The film was funded by Benito Mussolini and was released in 1937, serving as propaganda for the fascist ambitions in North Africa.

Theatrical poster.
A division of the Italian army was used as extras in the film, shortly

before being transferred to duty in the Spanish Civil War.[1] The Lincoln Battalion was formed by a group of volunteers from the United States who served in the Spanish Civil War as soldiers, technicians, medical personnel and aviators fighting for Spanish Republican forces

against the forces of General Francisco Franco and his Nationalist faction. The Lincoln Battalion integrated white and black volunteers on an equal basis. Of the approximately 3,015 volunteers from the US, 681 were killed in action or died of wounds or sickness.[3]

The Communist International immediately started to organize the International Brigades with great care to conceal or minimize the communist character of the enterprise, in the line of the Popular Front, and make clear the campaign was on behalf of progressive democracy.[1] In

keeping with Popular Front culture, the Americans named their units the Abraham Lincoln Battalion, the George Washington Battalion, and the John Brown Battery. Other countries used names like "Garibaldi" in Italy.[1] One hundred twenty-five American men and women also served

with the American Medical Bureau as nurses, doctors, technicians, and ambulance drivers. Robert Hale Merriman (November 17, 1908 – c. April 2, 1938) was an American doctoral student who fought with the Republican forces in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. He was killed while

commanding the Abraham Lincoln Battalion of the International Brigades. A member of left-wing groups at the University of California and friend of Robert Oppenheimer, he was chosen to lead the volunteers in Spain. The headquarters of the brigade was located at the Gran Hotel,[2]

Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha. They participated in the battles of Madrid, Jarama, Guadalajara, Brunete, Belchite, Teruel, Aragon and the Ebro. Most of these ended in defeat. For the last year of its existence, the International Brigades were integrated into the Spanish Republican

Army as part of the Spanish Foreign Legion. The organisation was dissolved on 23 September 1938 by Spanish Prime Minister, Juan Negrín, in a vain attempt to get more support from the liberal democracies on the Non-Intervention Committee Finally, some 500 communists who had been

exiled to Russia were sent to Spain (among them, experienced military leaders from the First World War like "Kléber" Stern, "Gomez" Zaisser, "Lukacs" Zalka and "Gal" Galicz, who would prove invaluable in combat).

Albacete soon became the International Brigades headquarters

and its main depot. It was run by a troika of Comintern heavyweights: André Marty was commander; Luigi Longo (Gallo) was Inspector-General; and Giuseppe Di Vittorio (Nicoletti) was chief political commissar. Cominform was initially located in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, but after the

Tito–Stalin split expelled Yugoslavia from the group in June 1948, the seat was moved to Bucharest, Romania. Officially, Yugoslavia was expelled for "Titoism", based on accusations of deviating from Marxism-Leninism and anti-Sovietism. In reality, Yugoslavia was considered to be

heretical for resisting Soviet dominance in its affairs and integration into Eastern Bloc as a Soviet satellite state. Remnants of the Royal Yugoslav Army, led by Colonel Draža Mihailović and organised as Chetnik guerrillas, were already pursuing the restoration of King Peter II.

After the fall of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Mihailović organized the Chetniks at Ravna Gora and engaged in guerrilla warfare alongside Josip Broz Tito's Partisans against occupying German forces. Opposing strategies, ideological differences and general distrust drove them apart,

and by late 1941 the two groups were in open conflict. Many Chetnik groups collaborated or established modus vivendi with the Axis powers, which along with British frustration over Mihailović's inaction led to the Allies shifting their

support to Tito in 1944. Mihailović himself collaborated with Milan Nedić and Dimitrije Ljotić at the end of the war. In the years preceding the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, Mihailović was stationed in Celje, Drava Banovina (modern Slovenia). At the time of the invasion, Colonel

Mihailović was an assistant to the chief-of-staff of the Yugoslav Second Army in northern Bosnia. He briefly served as the Second Army chief-of-staff prior to taking command of a "Rapid Unit" (brzi odred) shortly before the Yugoslav High Command capitulated to the Germans on 17

April 1941.[Following World War II the region was reconstituted, with additional pre–World War II Italian territory (Julian March), as the Federal State of Slovenia, within a federal second Yugoslavia.

The Triple Entente promised the regions to Italy in the dissolution of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire in exchange for Italy's joining the Allied Powers in World War I. The secret 1915 Treaty of London promised Italy territories largely inhabited by Italians (such as Trentino) in addition to those largely inhabited by Croats or Slovenes; the territories

housed 421,444 Italians, and about 327,000 ethnic Slovenes.
A contemporary Italian autonomous region, bordering on Slovenia, is named Friuli Venezia Giulia ("Friuli and Julian Venetia"). The Treaty of Osimo was signed on 10 November 1975 by the Socialist Federal Republic of

Yugoslavia and the Italian Republic in Osimo, Italy, to definitively divide the Free Territory of Trieste between the two states: the port city of Trieste with a narrow coastal strip to the north west (Zone A) was given to Italy; a portion of the north-western part of the

peninsula (Zone B) was given to Yugoslavia. The full name of the treaty is Treaty on the delimitation of the frontier for the part not indicated as such in the Peace Treaty of 10 February 1947. The treaty was written in French and became effective on 11 October 1977. For the

Italian Government, the treaty was by Mariano Rumor, Minister for Foreign Affairs. For Yugoslavia, the treaty was signed by Miloš Minić, the Federal Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Italian nationalists rejected the idea of giving up Istria, since Istria had been an

ancient "Italian" region together with the Venetian region (Venetia et Histria). Since Slovenia's accession to the European Union and the Schengen Area, customs and immigration checks have been abolished at the Italian-Slovenian border. The Schengen Agreement was signed on 14

June 1985 by five of the ten EC member states[9] in the town of Schengen, Luxembourg. The Schengen Area was established separately from the European Communities, when consensus could not be reached among all EC member states on the abolition of border controls.
The Agreement

was supplemented in 1990 by the Schengen Convention, which proposed the abolition of internal border controls and a common visa policy.[10] The Agreements and the rules adopted under them were entirely separate from the EC structures, and led to the creation of the

Schengen Area on 26 March 1995.[

On 25 March 1957, the Treaty of Rome was completed. On 3 February 1958, the economic union of the Benelux countries was formed. Both agreements aimed to enable the free movement of people and goods across national borders. The Benelux countries,

as a smaller group, were able to quickly implement the agreement. The European Communities' focus was on economic integration. It was not until the agreement of Saarbrücken was completed on 13 July 1984, that border controls between France and Germany were eased.
On 14 June 1985,

France, Germany and three of the Benelux nations completed the Schengen Agreement. On 1 August 2018, Bulgaria and Romania gained full access to SIS
On 1 Jan 2021, Ireland joined the law enforcement aspect,with full access to SIS for law enforcement purposes from 15 March 2021.

In June 2020, the Security and Intelligence subcommittee of the House of Lords, on hearing evidence by Home Office Minister James Brokenshire, expressed concerns that failure of the (post-Brexit) trade negotiation between the UK and the EU could lead to worrying delays in access

to counter-terrorism intelligence. In July 2016, under Theresa May's new cabinet, Brokenshire was appointed the Northern Ireland Secretary.[4] On 16 January 2017, the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed following the resignation of Martin McGuinness as deputy First Minister one

week earlier, and the refusal of Sinn Féin to nominate a successor. In May 2003, transcripts of telephone calls between McGuinness and British officials including Mo Mowlam, the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair's Chief of Staff, were

published in a biography of McGuinness entitled From Guns to Government by Kathryn Johnston and Liam Clarke. The tapes had been made by MI5 and the authors of the book were arrested under the Official Secrets Act. The conversations showed an easy and friendly relationship

between McGuinness and Powell. He joked with Powell about unionist MPs while Mowlam referred to him as "babe" and discussed her difficulties with Blair. In another transcript, he praised Bill Clinton to Gerry Adams.[

One of McGuinness's middle names, Pacelli, is after

Pope Pius XII (Eugenio Pacelli). Pope Pius XII (Italian: Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (Italian pronunciation: [euˈdʒɛːnjo maˈriːa dʒuˈzɛppe dʒoˈvanni paˈtʃɛlli]; 2 March 1876 – 9 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the

Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958. Before his election to the papacy, he served as secretary of the Department of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs, papal nuncio to Germany, and Cardinal Secretary of State, in which capacity he worked to conclude

treaties with European and Latin American nations, such as the Reichskonkordat with Nazi Germany.[1] After his death the State of Israel declared him to be a Righteous Gentile in recognition of the estimated 800,000 Jewish lives he saved. On 24 June 1914, just four days before

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo, Pacelli, together with Cardinal Merry del Val, represented the Vatican when the Serbian Concordat was signed. The similarly-minded US President Franklin D. Roosevelt re-established American diplomatic relations

with the Vatican after a seventy-year hiatus and dispatched Myron C. Taylor as his personal representative.

In 1900, Taylor left Lyons to join his brother Willard Underhill Taylor (Cornell, A.B., class of 1891) on Wall Street in New York City, New York. His focus turned to

corporate law, practicing at the firm of DeForest Brothers & DeForest. Taylor handled litigation for his father's tannery and subsequently won a U.S. government contract for mail pouches and related products.

In July 1938 he represented the U.S. at the Évian Conference, in

Évian-les-Bains, France, convened at the initiative of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to discuss the issue of increasing numbers of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution leading up to the onset of World War II. Taylor was also successful in persuading Spain's military

general and dictator Francisco Franco not to join the Axis powers of World War II. Later, he was able to lobby for an Allied military airbase in neutral Portugal that was ultimately granted. Although there were interim informal diplomacy assignments, the U.S. did not appoint an

official U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See until 1984. His country home in Locust Valley, New York, was situated on the site of a farm started by an English colonial ancestor, Captain John Underhill.[18] After the Underhill house was damaged in a fire, Taylor did not tear it

down. Instead, he encased it in a new façade designed by the architect Harrie T. Lindeberg. Taylor took an active interest in Underhill — placing a marker at the entrance to the Underhill Burying Ground in 1953 and creating an endowment to assist with the perpetual maintenance.

The marker reads: "Erected by Myron C. Taylor in honor of his mother Mary Morgan Underhill Taylor, 1953". Leaders in government, finance and industry were among the 200 people who attended the funeral service at his home on 16 East Seventieth Street. Honorary pallbearers included

Welles; Deane Waldo Malott, president of Cornell University; Roger M. Blough, chairman of U.S. Steel; and Benjamin F. Fairless and Irving S. Olds, former chairmen of U.S. Steel.

The result was millions of Jews attempting to flee Europe, while they were perceived as an

undesirable and socially damaging population with popular academic theories arguing that Jews damaged the "racial hygiene" or "eugenics" of nations where they were resident and engaged in conspirative behaviour. In 1936, Chaim Weizmann (who decided not to attend the conference)[

7] declared that "the world seemed to be divided into two parts – those places where the Jews could not live and those where they could not enter."In early October 1914 the USS North Carolina arrived in Jaffa harbor with money and supplies provided by Jacob Schiff, the

American Jewish Committee, and the Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs, then acting for the WZO, which had been rendered impotent by the war. Although Weizmann retained Zionist leadership, the clash led to a departure from Louis Brandeis's movement.

Imperial interests on the Suez Canal as well as sympathy after the Holocaust were important factors for British support. The Commercial Solvents Corporation was established at the end of World War I; earning distinction as the pioneer producer of acetone and butanol by

fermentation processes developed and patented by Dr. Chaim Weizmann. Terre Haute, Indiana was chosen to be the site of CSC's research as this location made possible the expedient translation of new processes from the laboratory and demonstration plant into full production.[1][2]

As early as 1917, the corporation began work in Terre Haute, Indiana. It developed the conversion of corn and other grains into ethanol by fermentation. They later produced riboflavin by microbial action.[3] In 1946, his son, William Davis Ticknor Jr., was appointed manager

of the export division of Commercial Solvents Corporation.[The U.S. Army Ordnance Corps constructed the Vigo Plant in 1942, prior to the official start of the U.S. biological weapons program.[1] The Vigo Ordnance Plant began producing conventional explosives and munitions on

February 18, 1942.[3] The Army decommissioned the factory less than year later,[1] and on June 30, 1943 the plant was transferred to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.[3] Portions of the Vigo Plant were then leased to the Delco Radio Corporation for the manufacture of military

electronics equipment.[1] The plant served in this capacity until May 1944.[1]
On May 8, 1944 the Army Special Projects Division (SPD) directed the Vigo Plant to convert its facilities for full-scale biological agent production. In March 1944 the British had placed an order for

500,000 of these bombs which Winston Churchill, remarked, should only be considered a "first installment".[5]
Bio-weapons production
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When it was conceived, the initial plan was for the Vigo Plant to be a production facility for anthrax and botulinum toxin.

On December 15, 1947 the Pfizer company executed a 20-year lease agreement with the government to take over the Vigo site.[3][5] The company would begin antibiotic manufacture at Vigo in 1948 but the military continued to liquidate the surrounding land into 1949.[3] That year a

1,500-acre (6.1 km2) tract was acquired by the Bureau of Prisons to be used as agricultural land, other portions of the Vigo property were acquired by various private entities.[3] The BW production facilities at Vigo were eventually replaced by a more modern factory at

Pine Bluff Arsenal in 1954. Per a 1994 arms-control agreement between the United States and Russia each nation was permitted to inspect three sites in the other country that it suspected were biological warfare facilities.[11] The Russians chose to tour Pfizer's main research

center in Groton, Connecticut,[4] the Plum Island facilities, including Building 101, and the Vigo Ordnance Plant.[11] The Russians were shown the decrepit military facilities at Vigo, many of which were shuttered, padlocked and in an obvious state of disrepair.[4] When the

Russians observed the fermenters, they asserted that it was evidence of a secret, illegal U.S. BW program.[4] Russian reaction to the tours, in general, was not good, and a negative report of their visit followed when they returned to Russia.[4] The report maintained that the

facilities could potentially be used for BW.[4 In 1959, the company established an animal health division with a 700-acre (2.8 km2) farm and research facility in Terre Haute, Indiana.[13]

In 2003, Pfizer merged with Pharmacia, and in the process acquired Searle and SUGEN.

Between 1977 and 1985, Donald Rumsfeld served as CEO, and then as president, of Searle.