ATTENTION ON SPAIN

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22419, 4 June 1938, Page 15

ATTENTION ON SPAIN

• ♦ Mr* Chamberlain Seeks A Truce IDEA NOT FAVOURED BY EITHER SIDE WHITED PRESS *.S«OCI.4TTOB COPYRIGHT.) (Received June 3, 8.20 p.m.) LONDON, June 3. The British Government is conferring with its representatives in Spain about measures to prevent attacks on British shipping, says the Australian Associated Press. Mr Chamberlain is seeking a truce between the rebel? and the Loyalists. The French are ready to help; but the Italians and Germans, believing that an ultimate victory for General Franco is certain, are less inclined to suggest this plan. The Spaniards are even more difficult to persuade. General Franco considers that he will soon be able to make his own terms, and the majority .of the Loyalists want to fight to thfe last ditch. Herr Hitler is conferring daily with Field-Marshal Goering, Admiral Raeder (Naval Chief of Staff), General von Brauchitsch (Army Chief of Staff), and other high officers, says the Berlin correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” Although the press is still concentrating its guns on Czechoslovakia, political circles believe that Herr Hitler and his advisers are more concerned about the Spanish situation and the unexpected resistance of the Government forces. “ NEW SITUATION” SOVIET AND WITHDRAWAL PROPOSALS (BRITISH orriCIAI, WIRELESS.) RUGBY, June 2. The chairman’s sub-committee of the Non-Intervention Committee, at its eighty-eighth meeting, considered a further revision of the draft resolution providing for the withdrawal of foreign volunteers, for granting, in certain circumstances, belligerent rights to the two narties in Soain. and for the observation of the Span'sn frontiers by land dnd sea. The committee examined each of cae outstanding questions on which agreement had been reached, and the Soviet representative made a lengthy statement. The chairman (the Earl of ; Plymouth) said’ that the situation created ay this statement involved the three questions embodied in the recent British proposals to which the Soviet had hitherto been unable to agree: (1) The method to be adopted by the commissions in counting and classifjing foreign volunteers; (2) the date for the restoration of international observation on the FrenchSpanish frontier; (3) th i strengthening of the sea observation scheme.. The Soviet was prepared now to accept the first of these proposals, and the second also provided that if the actual withdrawal’o volunteers did not begin on the date prescribed in the plan there would be nr further extension of the period in which international observation should remain in force on the French-Spanish frontier. The Soviet’s agreement to these pjints was, however, conditional upon the acceptance by the international committee of an arrangement by which international observing officer? would be , permanently stationed at all Spanish ports where it was possible to unload war material or land troops. The meeting agreed to consider the new situation created by the Soviet’s statement, and to meet again on June 10. REPLY TO BRITISH PROTESTS INVESTIGATION PROMISED BY GENERAL FRANCO LONDON, June 2. General Franco, replying to the British protests against the bombing of the British steamers Penthames and Thorpehall, declares that British shipping was not deliberately selected for attack. He promises that an investigation will be made, and also expresses regret. FOREIGN SYMPATHY WITH LOYALISTS AMBULANCES AND FOOD /SENT TO SPAIN . BARCELONA, June 2. Many ambulances, besides food supplies, are arriving from sympathetic countries, the latest being a truck labelled, “From Italian women who implore the pardon of Spanish children for the brutal Italian bombardments.” LOYALIST MESSAGE TO N.Z. BRITAIN ACCUSED OF INDECISION BOMBING OF CIVILIANS (BSZSS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, June 3. The New Zealand Spanish Medical Aid Committee has received a cablegram from Barcelona giving details of the results of the rebel bombing of the town of Granollers. The message declares: “This has been made possible by lack of decision on the part of the British and French Governments to protest against the massacre

perpetrated against the civilian population of Alicante last week. Had an immediate energetic protest been made the crime at Granollers might have been avoided.” The cablegram states that the people of Spain appeal to their friends in democratic countries to exert all their influence on their governments to force them to protest, and adds: “The indecision and complacency of the British Government have been responsible for the loss of another British ship, the Penthames, which was sunk in Valencia harbour hy Fascist aeroplanes."