KEEPING OUT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 65, 18 March 1938, Page 7

KEEPING OUT.

BRITISH DECISION. Policy of Non-intervention in Spain Is Definite. "MAJOR WAR AVERTED." United Press Association. —Copyright. LONDON, March 17. "We intend to continue in the future a.s we have done in the past, in close touch with the French Government," said the Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, during the House of Commons debate on the situation in Spain, which has become the focal point of the crisis in European politics. Mr. Chamberlain said: "Our policy has been non-intervention. It would be ridiculous to pretend there has not been intervention since the policy was adopted, but I assert that the policy has restricted intervention which otherwise would have occurred on a far greater scale. "Secondly, the policy has averted an international war, at first carried on on Spanish soil and afterward probably spreading beyond. The fact that the war has been confined to Spanish territory, and for the most part to the Spanish • people, is a tribute to the success of the British policy of non-inter-vention. •» Opposition View Denied. "The Opposition assumes that the success of General Franco means the handing over of Spain to what Mr. Attlee calls the Fascist Powers. He assumes that the victory means that Spain would pass under the complete control of Italy and Germany, and that that has been the intention of Italy and Germany all along. The British Government has never taken that view, and does not take it to-dav."

The Liberal Leader, Sir Archibald Sinclair, begged the Government to give an assurance that Britain would stand by France as far as she wished to go. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir •John Simon, replying for the Government, said: "The British policy regarding the Spanish war is definite. We will not intervene and will endeavour to dissuade others from intervening. It is impossible to change that policy according to the changing fortunes of the war. It is unreasonable to describe it as handing over Spain to the Fascist Powers." Sir John Simon denied that any Note had been received from the French Government asking Britain to take some action in Spain. After a full debate, Mr. Attlee's motion for the adjournment , was defeated by 317 votes to 141. AUSTRALIAN VIEW. STATEMENT BY MR. LYONS, (Received 9.30 a.m.) MELBOURNE, this day. The Federal Cabinet met yesterday and discussed the developments in Europe, after which the Prime Minister, Mr. Lyons, announced that the situation was not regarded as sufficiently critical to demand a detailed statement of the Government's policy or a conference with the Leader of the Opposition. "The European situation was closely examined. Although it is admittedly; grave there is no justification fori panic," he said. '