BRITISH SHIPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 June 1938, Page 7

BRITISH SHIPS

ATTACKS IN SPANISH WATERS MEASURES OF PROTECTION DISCUSSED. ACTION BEYOND PROTESTS , IF NECESSARY. (British Official Wireless.)' RUGBY, June 1. Mr R. A. Butler, Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, received a number of Parliamentarians and representatives of shipping companies at the Foreign Office for a discussion on the recent attacks .on British ships in Spanish waters.

The position of the British Government since the beginning of the Spanish civil war has been that it would afford naval protection to British shipping on the high seas, but could not give protection in territorial waters. The Government, nevertheless, has no intention of allowing British ships lawfully trading with Spanish ports to be the objects of attacks from the air.

The Government is believed, therefore, to be giving close and active consideration to measures which could be taken to bring home to those concerned in these attacks that their continuation cannot be tolerated and that, if protests are neglected, they do not exhaust the action which Britain might be compelled to take. FRANCO’S REGRETS , DENIAL OF DELIBERATE ATTACKS INVESTIGATION PROMISED (Recd This Day. 9.55 am.) LONDON, July 2. General Franco, replying to the British protests against the bombing of the Penthames and Thorpe Hall, declares that British shipping was not deliberately selected for attack and promises an investigation. He also expresses regret.