“Taranaki Central Press” THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1937. NEW ANGLE ON SPAIN.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 461, 1 July 1937, Page 4

“Taranaki Central Press” THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1937. NEW ANGLE ON SPAIN.

The foreign affairs debate in the House of Commons disclosed more than a tendency to make the best of a bad job over the threatened break-down of the present non-interven-tion policy in Spain. There was, indeed, a suggestion that the war might burn itself out more quickly under open intervention. Mr Lloyd-George put the m alter bluntly when he said that if non-intervention could not be enforced the Powers ought to wind up “the fraudulent pact” and let both sides buy war material where they could. Mr /Attlee, the Leader of the Opposition, sounded the same note when he said that the massacre of Spanish people by foreign airmen showed the farce of nonintervention, to which was due also the fall of Bilbao. The Government, however, was by no means ready to subscribe to such a policy. Mr Eden said that unlimited competition in arms and men would bring infinite danger of a clash between outside Powers. This was the note sounded by the Prime Minister, Mr Chamberlain, who, while recognising that nonintervention was in itself an interference with the course of hostilities inasmuch as it deprived each side of supplies, supported it as the best way of keeping a cool head. Mr Chamberlain believed that the conflict can be limited to Spain, and he indicated that Britain would adhere to the policy of non-inter-vention to the end. At this stage there is no other policy that Britain can pursue. It is true that the position is bristling with danger, but the wonder is not that there have been incidents like the bombing of the Deutschland or the mining of a British destroyer, but that the high tension of the blockade has not given rise to much more serious incidents. This in itself is an endorsement of Mr Chamberlain s statement that there is no government or country which wants to see a European war. The fact inspires the hope that the policy of goodwill revealed last week in the moye for the revival of world trade may bring with it a modification of the views of Germany and Italy on the Spanish struggle.