 Its first identified appearance was in a secret telegram sent to Berlin by the German charge d’affaires in Alicante, dated September 30, 1936.He referred to an unidentified "supposed statement by Franco" which "is being circulated" (apparently in the Republican zone or in the Republican-held Levantine zone).In the statement, Franco allegedly claimed that there were four Nationalist columns approaching Madrid and the fifth column waited to rise from the inside.