ITALY & SPAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 June 1939, Page 5

ITALY & SPAIN

SCALE OF INTERVENTION DISCLOSED HUNDRED THOUSAND TROOPS SENT IN FOUR MONTHS. HUGE QUANTITIES OF WAR MATERIAL. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. ROME. June 8. The newspaper “Armed Forces” reveals that between the middle of December. 1936. and the middle of April, 1937. which was the period of Italy’s most intensive intervention in Spain, 52 troop ships, convoyed by 30 warships, made 132 voyages to Spain, carrying 100,000 soldiers, 40,000 tons of war material, and 750 cannon. An Italian naval mission arrived in Cadiz in September, 1936, in order to co-ordinate the operations of the Italian and Spanish fleets and remained throughout the war.

NAVAL DETAILS ACTIVITIES OF SUBMARINES IN MEDITERRANEAN. “VARIOUS ENEMY VESSELS TORPEDOED.” (Received This Day. 9.15 a.m.) ROME, June 8. The newspaper “Armed Forces” says forty Italian warships participated in 226 naval actions during the Spanish war, including the occupation of the Ibiza Island, defence of Majorca in 1936, disablement of the Republican cruiser. Miguel de Cervantes and the destroyer Churruca. The articles boasted that Italian submarines spread fear in the Mediterranean, while fleet armed motor boats torpedoed various enemy vessels,' oil Sicily and in Spanish waters. A total of 149 Italian ships was placed at General Franco's disposal. War material supplied included 4370 lorries. Four hospital ships transported 14,858 wounded and sick to Italy in the course of 29 voyages. The article has received an official blessing. MUSSOLINI’S BOAST OPEN ASSISTANCE GIVEN FROM FIRST. ROME, June 8. Signor Mussolini, toasting the representative of General Franco. Senor Suner, at a State banquet, said:— “Fascist Italy felt from the beginning of your insurrection that it constituted a decisive trial not only for Spain’s future, but the'future of European civilisation. We therefore did not hesitate to give you openly all our assistance from the first day till the final victory. : Neither we nor our valiant comrades in arms, the Germans, ever doubted General Franco’s full triumph.”

NOTHING TO BE DONE STATEMENT BY BRITISH PRIME MINISTER. MAIN PURPOSE SAID 10 HAVE BEEN SERVED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 7. In a long answer in the House of Commons regarding the military material left in Spain by the Italians, the Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, said that, taking all the circumstances into account, Britain did not propose to make representations to Italy unless the situation should be materially altered by any new developments. He mentioned that during the course of the negotiations preceding the signature of the Anglo-Italian Agieernent, mention was made of the possibility of material being sold or given away after the end of the civil war. It was not against such an eventuality that Britain especially desired to guard. On the other hand, the information available showed that the main objective of the agreement had been achieved with the withdrawal of the Italian troops and the war material still in Italian hands—that objective was to ensure against the possibility that at. the end of the war the Spanish Government might be induced to afford bases where quantities of war material might be under Italian military control.

NAZI DUPLICITY DISCUSSION OF HITLER’S MOTIVES. PRESS FULMINATIONS RECALLED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 7. The “Daily Telegraph,” commenting on Herr Hitler’s recent address to the German legionaries returned from Spain, asks what was his motive for his previous silence concerning their participation. “Was it that he could not feel quite sure of his country’s approval of the remote and hazardous adventure till he was able to boast of an accomplished victory? Or was it that silence was a useful diplomatic counter in the argument as to who was doing most of the intervention?” the newspaper asks. "Whatever part the first motive may or may not have played, the operation of the second seems beyond doubt. From the start to the finish of the war the controlled Nazi Press was perpetually fulminating against the wickedness of other people's intervention, real or imaginary, /while sedulously concealing the German share.

“Even Britain, the European great Power which indisputably maintained strict neutrality, was not excluded from these charges. On the contrary, every scrap of information which could plausibly be represented as inculpating her was displayed beneath bold headlines.

“The exultant disclosures now made about the real part that Germany played in the Spanish conflict from July, 1936. onward are not likely to improve Herr Hitler’s reputation for candour.”