VOLUNTEERS FORFEIT RIGHT OF PROTECTION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 160, 24 July 1937, Page 6

VOLUNTEERS FORFEIT RIGHT OF PROTECTION

LONDON7 July 23, ^ The Santander correspondent of th® Timtss says that five shots were fired at the MacGregor when she was inside the three-mile limit, and the othe.rs when she was outside. In the House of Commons, Mr. Duff Cooper, replying to Mr. Wedgwood Benn, who complained of lack of protection for British merchant ships entering Spanish territorial waters to evacuate refugees, said: "These refu-' gee ships are volunteers, just as much as those volunteers from Italy, Germany, England and France, who are allegedly fighting for either side. They are participating in the war. Do they expect the British navy to see them ; safely into harboxr? What is it Mr. Wedgwood Benn suggests? Mr. Wedgwood: Common humanity. Mr. Duff Cooper: Common humanity lin this case would mean firing o'n i Spanish ships, entering the war and rislcing the lives of British sailoi* for a causd which nobody in Britain outside the Labour Party thinks is worth- fighting for. t He emphasised that the British Government would protect British ships on the high seas, but when they entered territorial waters, they forfeited the right of British protection.