"WAR OF INVASION"

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 209, 20 September 1937, Page 5

"WAR OF INVASION"

•Prass Assn.

Loyalist Premier Appeals To League FASCIST DESIGNS

(By Telegrapk—

— Cooyrtght.)

(Eeceived 20, 8.45 a.m.) GENEVA, Sept. 18. Delegates packed the meeting hall oi the League Assembly to-day to hear Dr. Juan Nqgrin, the Spanish delegate, make a dramatie speech. Dr. Negrin stated that Italy and Germany had no intention of leaving Spain when the war was over, and demanded the right to buy arms and munitions for Eepublican Spain. Dr. Negrin urged the League to recognise the Italian and German aggression, to extend the agreement reaehed. at Nyon to inelude Spanish ships, and to demand the withdrawal of tne foreign volunteers. Dr. Negrin added; "With our words carefully weighed, we teolemnly deelare that Italy is preparing to send to Spain an ariny twiee as large as she has there now." Dr. Negrin asked the Assembly to rofer the Spanish situation to a Politicai Commission. He declared that the Eepublieans could finish the war in three months jf the foreign volunteers were withdrawn, and added: "The original rebel army ceased to interest us more than

six months ago. . The civil war has become a war of invasion. Only the ineorrigibly innocent believe that the Italians and Germans could be seduced from Spain by the offer of compensations elsewhere, as Spain offers them unique opportunities for carrying out their European designs. M. Delbos, the French Foreign Minister, in a quiet speech} admitted that the Non-Intervention Committee had not given the results hoped for. He strongly appealed to all the nations to collaborate in the defenco of peace, and urged that international treaties be respected. Tho Norwegian, Dr. Kohi;, asked whether the League could not invite the. parties to accept an armistice pending a referendum on the lines of the suggestion made by Mr W. J. Jordan, the New Zealand High Commissioner, last week. Mr jordan, who was speaking on the question of the Spanish appeal to tho League, suggested that Spain should be asked to become a grade-A mandate jn , order to stop the civil war and hold fair elections when the country calmed down, so that the people could decide their own destiny. "I ask the Spanish whether it is too late to do that now," he said.