SPAIN ADDED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 68, Issue 144, 31 March 1948, Page 3

SPAIN ADDED

U.S. FOREIGN AID PLAN

Amendment Hotly Attacked

(N.Z.P. A.—Copyright).

XRee. 10.5.) WASHINGTON, March 30.

The House, by a standing vote of 149 to 52, to-day approved an amendment to its 6,205,000,000doilar Global Foreign Aid Bill, providing that Spain be added to the IS West European nations to receive assistance.

The amendment is technically subject to a roll-call vote before the Bill’s passage, but it appears certain that it will be carried. /

Attacking the ■. amendment in the five minutes’ ' debate allowed on it, Mr C. Holifield (Democrat, California) said the House tended to forget the part General Franco played in starting Fascist aggression. He conspired continuously with Hitler and Mussolini.

Mr J. (Republican, New York) said the House was making the gravest mistake. The United States had no ambassador in Spain, and did not recognise the Franco Government. The 16 nations in the Marshall Plan had not invited Spain to join them, and the invitation by the United States would open friends of democracy in Europe to attack by the Communists. Mr Leo Isacson (American Labour Party, New York) said approval of the amendment would shock the entire world’s conscience and would constitute a second betrayal of the Spanish people. The State'Department declined to comment, but officials pointed out that Britain and France had indicated reluctance to include the Franco Government in the European recovery programme.