STRAITS BLOCKADE BROKEN?

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 33, 7 August 1936, Page 8

STRAITS BLOCKADE BROKEN?

While the usual "fog of war" clouds' all the military operations within Spain proper, the naval-and-air operations between Morocco and Spain, and the transport of rebel reinforcements from Africa, are sufficiently under the eye of impartial observers to warrant the hope that some at least of the news from this quarter is true. If -so, the report that the rebels, v principally by airbombing attack, have "broken the sea blockade between Morocco and Spain," is of importance, and may counter in moral, effect the Spanish Government's claim to successes outside of Madrid: The extent to which the success of the airbombing attack may contribute to the general question of aeroplane v. warship cannot be guessed at till details of the rival forces, and of the way they were handled, are to hand; but it is quite clear that, if the rebels were able to send by sea, from Morocco to Spain, "3000 regulars, foreign legionaries, and Riffs with machine-guns, 200 field guns, thousands of hand grenades, and motor lorries," they have-found a means of seriously prolonging the civil war. The categorical character of that statement compels attention, apart from the daily story Hhat the rebels claim and the Government denies (or vice versa) some vague military success in the mountains. The conquest of Europe from Africa is one of the oldest projects in the world, and Spain is the natural crossing point; but never before has - the ■ passage been contested Tjy air. Hannibal and Hasdrubal had no aeroplanes, and their elephants were hardly a make-weight. The fact that in 1936 Africa has been invaded from Europe, and Europe from Africa, Indicates how unpredictable world-events have .become, and explains the attempt to rally the pacific elements in the Great Powers to a non-intervention policy in unhappy Spain.