SPAIN'S NEED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 113, 16 May 1939, Page 9

SPAIN'S NEED.

BIG MONEY LOAN.

Interest Of Continental Bankers Reported.

£20,000,000 TO LEAVE AXIS.

United Press Association.—Copyright.

(Received 1.30 p.m.)

LONDON, May 15

"The Times" Paris correspondent sajrs the Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs deny that a Spanish loan is being issued on the French market, or that foreign bankers are conferring on that account.

A communique does not deny that informal talks are progressing about credits to General Franco. It is evident that the Spanish Government wants money for reconstruction and equally that French financial interests, which have long had a big stake in Spain, want to participate,' but the French Government will not allow loans to Spain until Spanish independence is assured. Reports from the Continent suggest that not only French but Beloian, Dutch, English and Swiss banks are interested.

According to the Brussels correspondent of the "Daily Express," Dr. Paul van Zeeland, the former Belgian Prime Minister, is negotiating for a £20,000,000 loan to Spain on behalf of the Mendelsohn Bank, of Amsterdam, and Lazards, an international banking firm, who are demanding General Franco's assurance that he will not join the Italo-German military pact and that in case of war Spain will be neutral, says the Independent Cable Service-

HEATED DISSENT

I British Ambassador To Attend. I Franco Victory Parade. I OUTBURST IN COMMONS. I (Received !).3O a.m.) I LOXDOX, May 15. I In the House of Commons, the . Foreign Under-Secretary, Mr. R. A. k Butler, announced that the British i Ambassador had accepted an invitation to attend General Franco's victory parade. '• Liberals and Labour members heatedly > dissented. j OPPOSITE GIBRALTAR. SPANISH FORTIFICATIONS. GIBRALTAR, May 15. I Five hundred Spanish troops are reported to be digging trenches and I constructing fortifications at La Linea 'opposite Gibraltar. '