Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1939. PEACE PROSPECTS IN SPAIN.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 February 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1939. PEACE PROSPECTS IN SPAIN.

MUCH as attention has centred of late on the tragedy of the Catalonian retreat, with its hosts of miserable fugitives toiling towards the French frontier under a pitiless ram ot bombs, the resistance of Republican Spain even now is not whollv broken. It was mentioned in one of yesterday s came-o-rams that in the Madrid zone, General Miaja, with halt a million troops, better equipped than the Catalonians and with plentiful ammunition, is preparing a determined defence, though the food shortage is likely to be acute.

Since they were unable to make an effective diversion while the Catalonians were being beaten to their knees, it is perhaps unlikely that General Miaja’s forces will now be able to accomplish anything of value by continued resistance, the best that can now be hoped in the interests of Spam and its people is that hostilities may be terminated as soon as possible and this applies to the Balearic Islands as well as to the mainland territories. An attempted defence of Minorca would.be more likely to provide a pretext for extended foreign intervention than'to coptribute to the re-establishment of Spanish freedom. The outlook is not in any respect very promising, but it will not be improved by a. further slaughter of Spaniards.

Only when hostilities have ceased, which now must mean submission to the insurgents, will it be seen what Italian and German pledges of withdrawal are worth. Count Ciano is reported to have informed the British Ambassador m Rome (Lord Perth) that Italy adheres to the policy stated by Signor Mussolini to Mr Chamberlain, “namely, that al] Italian troops will be withdrawn as soon as General Franco’s victory is complete and that thereafter Italy has no intention of intervening in Spanish affairs.”

In the united and resolute stand to which they are now committed, it is possible that Britain and France may be able to enforce at least an apparent Italian and German withdrawal from Spain. Unless they are prepared to precipitate an immediate crisis by the assertion of colonial and other demands, the Fascist Powers can hardly refuse to honour their pledges of withdrawal once resistance to General Franco has ceased. The danger remains in clear sight that under Franco’s rule Spain may become a Fascist State, allied to and controlled by Italy and Germany. That danger can only be intensified, however, by allowing the slaughter of Spaniards to continue. If there’is‘to be any hope of a. strong revival of genuinely national sentiment in Spain, in opposition to foreign domination, the war cannot end too soon. It is certainly much better that’the men of the remaining Republican forces should remain alive to play a part in the political life of their country than that they iii turn should be blown to pieces by foreign bombs and shells.