AN APOLOGY TO SPAIN

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3092, 24 May 1917, Page 5

AN APOLOGY TO SPAIN

FOR RECENT VIOLATION OF TERRITORIAL WATERS Madrid, Hay 22. Germany has apologised for the recent violation, of Spanish territorial waters, and has promised to respect .Spanish rights in the future.—Aus.-N.Z, C'ablo Assn.

!i j A correspondent of the "Morning Tost" writes: . . That the course of events in Spain is not running smoothly is more than olcar from a perusal of the latest papers. The excesses of the Germans in Spain, both those interned and those not, are still fresh in the public's niomory. mous "salvo-couducfcos" given by the German Consuls to approved shipß are still e bitterly commented upon. The uncome i'ortable but, nevertheless, positive fact <i that Spain is snrronnded by numerous i "observation posts" in the shape of 09 B Gorman refugee ships and 23 Anstrian, . several of which have wireless installs 1 tione, tends to aggravate the position, . more especially as events in close connec--3 tion with various torpedoings near the Spanish coast are known to many, . although not published in the newspapers. r The publication of the German Note brought about the finishing touch. The Government, ever fearful for the preservation of its strict neutrality, established a censorship of the news, but, none the less, news arrived in this country to the • effect that the Germans in Spain, par- • ticularly those in the well-known ports, received some very rough handling.. Can ' it, indeed, be wondered at? The poor • fruit exporters had fast received notice ■ that negotiations with the British Gov- | • eminent had been concluded by which ' enormous quantities, of oranges were freed i for Holland, and were building their hopes on the news, so that when they > were rudely awakened 'to the last phase ! of German "frightfulness," they natur- ' ally sought to administer to the physician ' /some of his own medicine. The Royal Decree forbidding all clandestine wireless stations and compelling all authorised ones to wotlc only under a Government supervisor cheered np the public, as they imagined that things were at last beginning to move, and that the machinations of the Hun would soon be scotched, but a disappointment was in store, as immediately the sensational discovery relating to the supposed supplying of submarines at Cartagena became public the censorship stopped in again, and the matter still remains to a large extent shrouded in mystery.