Francisco Franco informed the British government that Italian troops would abandon the Balearic Islands after the war, and Britain agreed to arrange the surrender of the Republican garrison.

[3] On 8 January 1939, Admiral Luis González de Ubieta was transferred to Menorca to take the command of the Spanish Republican Navy base at Puerto Mahon.

[4] On 7 February, the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Devonshire arrived in Mahón harbour with a Nationalist emissary, Fernando Sartorius, on board.

Sartorius said to Ubieta that the Nationalist forces would occupy Menorca the next day, but Republican officers and supporters could abandon the island beforehand.

Nevertheless, the Republican officers, convinced that any resistance under those circumstances was pointless, asked for safe passage to the mainland.