SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1937.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 77, 17 April 1937, Page 4

SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1937.

TITE BIEBAO -'BLOCKADE" The "blockade" whicli the Spdiiish iiisurgents claim to have estaiblished rottild the ibyaiist pori' bf llilhao — bn the Bay of Hiscay and hbt very fdr froih the Freiicli frontier — has affbrded oecasion for a great burst bf ' jitigoism on the part of Opposition speakers in the Honse of Commons. To provide opportunity for this a vote of beiistife Avas laiiiiiched in the following terms : "The House, taking liote df the statonieiit by the Prime Minister, Mr Stanley Baldwin, on the situation at Bilbao ,ddplbfes the faiiurO of His Mdjesty's Government to giVe pfdtectidh to Brltish inerehhhfc ships on their lawftil dbeaSions. ' ' . .In the statement to tvhieh refbreiiee is thus made the Prinie Minister had iiitiniated that, While outside Spanish, territorial waters every prbtection tvould be extehded to British merchant shipping engaged in trade with Spain, into thbse wa/ters British warships would not trespass.- The point that was taken was, bf cttursfe, that ilo trespass Was involved, sbeing tha.t the Spanish Government still redbgnised by Great Britain w.as more than agreeable to an escort into the port being given to- British ships bringmg lood supplieE to the beleagered town. Stated thus baldly, thefe niight seeh sbme gfotind fbf the eonteiitions advanced by the Opposition and its accusations of timorousness they involved. The British Government had, hbWever, tb lobk far beydhd tliis .aspect of the sitiiatioti. tn the fifst pia.ce, it had to bear in mind that both Germany and Italy had granted diplomatic recognition to the Government whicli General Frahcd* tlle insilfgeiit leader, claimbd to have set up at Btirgos. Even that, however, though of quite. sufficeiit ililpbftatiee, .Was & mmol* coiisid.efa.tion. What mainly weighed.with the British Cahinet was that, as the Powef whieh had so loilg aiid strennously strivfeii ttf eiid outside intdfveiition in Spaiift's internal troubles, it was pafticularly inciiilibent oii Gfeat Bfitaiii to felfain ffom aiiy possible semblance of intervention lierself. That was reallv the whole crux of the position. It was one, too, thaft had to be the mote setiously fealis'ed wheii subli success ds had atteiided Bfitish efforts to secure non-intei'V'entiori Was just oii the eve of beiiig given soliie practieal effeet. It has to he borne in mind that it was only with mftnifest reluctaftiee that either Germany of Italy eveiitually subscribed to the Bfitish scheme of non-intervention and for providing, means to eiisufe its beiiig observed. Manifestly, therefore. British policy dictated that> ha.ving thus brought it to a stage giving some fair promise of effectiveness, the greatest care should be taken to affofd iio possibie pfetekt for either of fche Other Gfeat Powers to rephdialte their really half-hearted adhereiice to it. instead, however, of giving all possible and cordial support to the Govefiiment thus plaeed in a trying aiid most delicate position, in which the possibility of anotherEuropean waf Was involved., both the Labduf aiid the Libera! Oppositidii elected to cha,rge it with cowardice and poltroonery in the face of a merely visioiiary dangeiS In iio othef way coiild they have bettef served the pttfpose of those whose activities in Spain have so greatly prolbnged the sanguinary struggle for; political contfbl in that unhappy country. In all this it is difficult to see anythiiig other thaii a desire to reap political advantage from the cfitickll position in which tlle GbVernineiit Was plaeed — one possibly instigated and engineered from either Berlin or Rome, or from both. It is, of course, to be eonceived that the Labour Pafty was to SOme extent actuated by Sympathy with the Socialist Government of Spain, which would benefit materially by the arrival of substantial food supplies. Btit, as British policy has all along proceeded upon the assumption of stfict neutrality as betWeen the coiiteilding parties in Spajin, this implication Could only aggravate the tenseness of the situation as between Britain and the Fascist Powers. When We come to recall that it was an ultra.-pa;cifist Labotif Government which initiated the disarmament policy 1 that in the end proved so hopelessly futile, the pfesent attitude of the Party becomes Only the less intelligible. The pursuance of that policy resulted in Great Britain finding herself so relatively weak in a wofld Which had been steadily strengthening its armaments that her irtfluence in iiitefiiational councils had falleU lower than at any time since the century began* Yet it is this sauie Party which would seemingly risk the outbreak of another war when tlie Countfy iS not as yet mofe thatt half pfepafcd fof such an eventua&ity.