Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, MAY 17, 1938. CONTENTION AT GENEVA.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 May 1938, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, MAY 17, 1938. CONTENTION AT GENEVA.

rpiMTC and events may show that the League of Nations was further and seriously weakened by the manner in which its Council dealt last week with a resolution presented bv the representative of the Spanish Government, Senor del Vayo. The resolution demanded the abandonment of the policy of non-intervention now applied to Spain and it was rejected by four .votes to two. Britain, France, Poland and Rumania voted against it and Russia and Spain in its favour, while nine nations abstained from voting.

Nothing in the reported proceedings of the League Council suggests that any serious attempt was made to answer Senor del Vayo’s question: “What morality or justice justifies you in continuing to deprive a legal Government of its rights under international law ? Many who are in no way inclined to accept Senor del Vayo’s suggestion that Britain and France are attempting to deliver the Spanish people to the dictators may feel that his question ought to be answered frankly and in plain terms.

While he is stated to have sharply upbraided Senor del Vayo, the British Foreign Secretary (Lord Halifax) is reported also to have declared that it could not reasonably be maintained that non-intervention was designed only against the Spanish Government, and that Britain would continue to seek withdrawals on both sides.

The terrible weakness of this declaration must be apparent to all beholders. Very probably it would be entirely inaccurate and unwarranted to suggest that non-intervention was “designed” only against the Spanish Government, but a great deal of evidence is offered that the so-called policy of non-intervention has operated to the immense advantage of the Spanish rebels and to .the corresponding disadvantage of the legally-constituted Government of Spain.

Today, in view, of the far-reaching military success won bv the Spanish rebels, Lord Halifax’s statement that Britain -will continue to seek withdrawals on both sides wears very much the appearance of a bad joke. Unless appearances are strangely deceptive, the Spanish Government before long will be bombed and driven out of its last defences, largely because the rebels have been aided freely by Italy and Germany, while the Government has to a considerable extent been cut off from external assistance.

Britain and France no doubt are intent primarily upon preventing or avoiding any further approach to a European war. It certainly is not easy to believe, however, that they are helping to maintain and safeguard peace by conceding virtually a free hand to Italy and Germany in Spain and at the same time seeking a friendly understanding with the aggressor nations. Even if the fate of the victims of aggression has to be accepted ais regrettable, but inevitable, it surely is necessary to take account of the extent to which aggressors, in the conditions now ruling, are being encouraged to proceed to further aggression.