RIGHT TO BOMB BRITISH VESSELS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 137, 13 June 1938, Page 7

RIGHT TO BOMB BRITISH VESSELS.

FRANCO'S CLAIM. Ships Carry Contraband to Loyalists. ALLEGED ILLEGAL TRAFFIC. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 11 a.m.) BURGOS, June 12. General Franco has issued a statement that, over '200 ships under the British flag have carried contraband to the Loyalists since January 1. He' suggests that Britain's remedy against homhing of merchantmen is to prohibit the use of the British flag to'protect illegal traffic. Rebel officials publish a list of British shipping companies allegedly shipping material to the Loyalists. One, owning two ships before the civil war now owns 'i 9. Its organisers have formed five other companies for the same trade after the war began.

A categorical list of contraband cargoes includes shells, cartridges, explosives, aeroplanes, light and heavy machine-guns, lorries and barbedwire tanks, the sources being Greece, Russia, England and France. French ex-Minister's Views. A former Foreign Minister of France, M. Flandin, addressing the Democratic Alliance Congress, declared that fortunes were scandalously being amassed from the traffic in war materials from France to Barcelona and Valencia. He urged a profits tax and abandonment of the policy that was prolonging the war by preventing Franco-Italian collaboration. He said that the anger at bombing of pseudo-mercliantmen going to Spain lo deliver illicit cargoes was hypocritical. Many Frenchmen were astounded to learn that a general mobilisation order was ready on May 21. Mobilisation, lie said, was impossible while France is not attacked..

In regard to M. Flandin's statement that a French mobilisation order was ready on liar 21, M. Daladier, in a statement last week to the Finance Committee <>[ the Chamber of Deputies, said that three weeks ago France was within a few centimetres of another war.

DEIYE TO CASTELLON. j Loyalist Counter-attack Succeeds. SAVAGE WARFARE CONTINUES. (Received 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, June 12. Rebels, after storming outlying positions at daybreak and capturing central and north-western fortifications, dominated Castelloii, according to a Saragossa message. A later dispatch, however, from the same source, stated that the Loyalists successfully counter-attacked along the Villafaois-Castellon Road, compelling the rebels to retreat several miles and abandon positions gained, but savage warfare continues.