THE FALL OF BILBAO AND AFTER.

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 132, 21 June 1937, Page 6

THE FALL OF BILBAO AND AFTER.

The news we have from. Spain to-day leaves no room for doubt as to the insurgent forces under General Franco having attained their immediate objective of gaining possession of Bilbao the seaport capital of the Basque province, whose heroic and stubborn defence over the last three months has involved the loss of numberless lives, mainly, it has to be noted, among the eivilian population. The bitterness and bloodthirstiness of the fraticidal struggle for political oontrol are well illustrated by the fact that General Franco, though evidently well assured that the town was virtually his, still continued his aerial hombardment, raining death and destruction upon it and in the coldest of remmorseless cold blood slaughtering further hundred's of the citizens and their womenfolk and children guilty of notliing but a desire to escape from the inferno in which they had been confined for so many dread weeks. The pity an'd the sorrow of it all are that we can scarcely look forward with any great hope to the f all of Bilbao spelling the end of the confict. Bilbao is, after all, only a provincial capital and it is not at all likely that with its capture General Franco will hold his hand, that will not come until he has also reduced the national capital into possession, so that it may well be feared that the horrors of Bilbao will be repeated at Madrid, which has already suffered badly at his hands. From that quarter we have during the last two or three months had little, if any news of activ'e hostilities, but it may be fully expected that they will now be revived with fresh vigour and with little less savagery. Nor, indeed, does it seem likely that this unhappy country's troubles will be at an end even when General Franco has established himself at Madrid, for there seems little prospect that any Government such as he may seek to set up will meet with general acceptance. Political differences are altogether too radical, deep-seated and irreconcilable for that, so that whether or not they may take shape in further civil war it seems fairly certain that there will be an indefinite continuance of political turmoil such as will afford little chance of eoonomic recovery. All perhaps that we may reasonably hope for is that with a cessation of actual fighting, whenever that may come, there will be considerably less danger of other countries becoming involved. Even then there must be some j doubts as to the attitude Germany and Italy may assume as ! the result of victory falling to the arms of the would-be dictator of Spain, whose cause they have done so much to promote. What they may be expecting by way of recompense for the assistance thus given it is still difficult to say. But we may be pretty well assured of this that for the next year or two diplomatists will be kept busy seeking pea.ceful ways of composing internatiomal differences arising directly and indirectly from Spain 's internal troubles. Away at this distance it is not easy to foresee the difficulties and complications with which they may be confronted. INTERVENTION IN BUSINESS. " State iritervention has saddled the country to-day with a long list of measures of avowedly restrictive character," says The Economist, referring to the last conference of Imperial statesmen at Ottawa. " Old tariffs have been raised and new tariffs imposed on a wide range of commodities — raw, semi-finished, and manufactured. Import quotas have been set up for agricultural products, and international restriction agreements for essential raw materials — notably rubber and tin — have been buttressed by Colonial legislation passed at tbe instanee of the Home Government. Some of these measures were, perhaps, defensible in an emergency, as being in the nature of a crutch, Which an invalid might discard on regaining health and strength. Others, however, were able to creep, intrude and ° climh up into the economie fold for no better reason tkan "that puhlic is nroverhially tender towards producing interests in time of adversity."