WAR SHOULD END

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 February 1939, Page 7

WAR SHOULD END

RECOGNITION OF FRANCO ADVOCATED BY LONDON “TIMES.” POLICY SAID TO BE “SPAIN FOR THE SPANIARDS." (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 14. Referring to the discussions by the British Cabinet on February 15 concerning the question of recognition. “The Times.” in a leading article today, expresses the hope that the decision will be based on facts. The paper adds: “Recognition should be accorded whenever General Franco’s authority is deemed sufficient. He does not possess Madrid, but this need not be a condition of recognition because otherwise desperate resistance by General Miaja might be encouraged. “General Franco's policy is ‘Spain for the Spaniards.’ It is important to appoint to Spain at an appropriate time a British Ambassador of the highest character in order to ensure worthy representation in an era of reconstruction.

“It is useless to cry ‘arms for Spain’ when heaps of arms have been abandoned. The cessation of bloodshed is the paramount need. The war has become senseless. It is time to close a chapter of heroism and crime and begin rebuilding, and the only visible master-builder is General Franco.”

FRANCO ANGRY? OVER BOMBING OF MINORCA BY ITALIANS. AN UNCONFIRMED REPORT. LONDON, February 14. Reuters’ distribute a report, which is not confirmed, that general Franco forthrightly expressed anger to Italy concerning the bombardment of Minorca by Italian planes during the visit of H.M.S. Devonshire for the peace negotiations. v

ORDERLY RETREAT LAST CATALONIAN TROOPS CROSS FRONTIER. MANY DEATHS IN FRENCH HOSPITALS. PERPIGNAN, February 14. Today will see the last of the republican Catalonian troops pass the frontier. The retreat was executed in splendid order. The insurgents alleged that the Republicans, in evacuating Llers, blew up the magazine, causing the death of nearly all the villagers. The correspondent of the British United Press in Paris says that 10 wounded loyalists are dying daily at French refugee hospitals because of the rigours of their retreat. A message from Bourg-Madame states that the last divisions of the Catalonian army have reached France | after blowing up ammunition and pushing lorries over the mountain sides in order to deprive the rebels of them. Insurgent planes caused only minor damage in a raid on the naval base at Cartagena, but 100 were killed and 200 injured in a raid on Jatiba, near Valencia.

“LABOUR CORPS” ITALIAN TROOPS IN NEW GUISE. MUSSOLINI’S REPORTED DESIGN. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright PARIS, February 15. Observers see the possibility of Signor Mussolini’s keeping an army in Spain at the end of the war by turning it into a “civilian labour corps.” This links up with the formation of the Societa del Mediterraneo, a new company for building public works in Spain whereby a supply of Italian labour will be sent to General Franco.

The important point of the general plan is to demobilise the troops and then immediately form a labour corps for storing arms at strategic points, subject to the same discipline as the army.