The Press FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 1938. Attacks on British Shipping

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22430, 17 June 1938, Page 10

The Press FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 1938. Attacks on British Shipping

Mr Neville Chamberlain has made the only possible answer to those members of the Liberal and Labour Opposition in the House of Commons who are demanding more adequate protection for British shipping in Spanish territorial waters. Such shipping, he points out, cannot be directly safeguarded against air attack; and attempts at retaliatory action would involve intervention in the civil war and might not achieve their purpose. But in spite of its negative character, the statement is one of the most important yet made in the House of Commons on the Spanish question, since for the first time Mr Chamberlain abandons his customary unwillingness to say anything that might offend the Burgos Government and its foreign backers. He allows it to be understood that the British Government is refraining from action to protect British shipping in Spanish territorial waters on purely practical grounds and not because it regards recent attacks as inadvertent or justified. General Franco’s statement, in reply to a British Note, that there has been no deliberate discrimination against British shipping is mentioned with implied but obvious scepticism. General Franco’s further statement that the war is being unduly prolonged by the transport of military supplies in British ships to the Loyalists is met by a flat denial. The Burgos authorities, Mr Chamberlain reveals, were invited to produce evidence in support of this charge; and so far the evidence has implicated only one ship, the master of which is now on trial. Finally, and most surprisingly, when Mr Chamberlain was asked by Mr Attlee whether he would make representations “ not “ only to General Franco but to those govern“ments also which were supplying the attack- “ ing aeroplanes ’’ he did not bother to reject the suggestion conveyed by the question but contented himself with remarking that he “ thought they must hold General Franco responsible for the orders given to the forces “ under his command.” The change in Mr Chamberlain’s tone is much better evidence than the vociferous complaints of Liberal and Labour members against the Government’s toleration of attacks on British shipping of the increasing gravity of the Spanish situation. Moreover, it is perhaps unwise to assume that the British Government will continue indefinitely to tolerate the present situation. One passage in Mr Chamberlain’s statement suggests a line of action which General Franco can hardly contemplate with equanimity. It is impossible that attacks, frequently involving the loss of life, and sometimes apparently deliberate, on British ships can be repeated without serious injury to the friendly relations which the Burgos authorities have declared that they desire to maintain with the British Government. This can reasonably be interpreted to convey a threat that, if the attacks continue, the British Government will withdraw its representative from Burgos and cancel the modified recognition which it has accorded to the Franco regime.