ARMS RING PLOT

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 173, 19 April 1937, Page 9

ARMS RING PLOT

Discovery Reported In London MUNITIONS FOR WAR Two Englishmen Mentioned in Disclosures TANGLED THREAD TRACED By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright (Received April IS, 7.30 p.m.) London, April 18. The Marquess of Donegal!, writing in the “Sunday Dispatch,” discloses an alleged plan to run nearly £3,000,000 worth of arms and munitions to Spain, and through which he asserts Mr. Victor Hervey, the 21-year-old son of Lord Herbert Hervey, former Minister to Peru, and Mr. John Christopher Lonsdale, of Wimborn, known in the West End as “a man about town,” hope to make £50,000 each. Lord Donegall declares that he picked up the trail at a West End reception, folio-wed it to Finland, and finally discovered a gigantic arms ring with headquarters in London, Paris, Oslo, and Helsingfors. -s Tangled with the threads of the plot are spying, counter-spying, and bribery. Lord Donegall asserts that Mr. Hervey, after being introduced by a Londoner in Florida, received from a Spanish Government agent in Paris a letter of credit to the value of £378,000, upon which he went to Finland and arranged with Captain Jusu, the Finnish arms dealer who made £500,000 in six months through his activities, for a vast supply of arms. However, as the Finns are violently anti-Communist, the certificate enabling the shipment to be made to the Spanish Government cost £5OOO. Lord Donegall also alleges that Mr. Lonsdale told him that he had arranged to let the rebel commander-in-chief General Franco, know how he could capture the ship carrying the arms to Spain, for which he and Mr. Hervey were to receive £30,000 each. Lord Donegall adds tb.at if a ship is found to take the arms, which has not yet been done, and the Government extends credit, the deal may yet be

completed. SITUATION CRITICAL Food Shortage in Basques (British Official Wireless.) Rugby, April 10. Two private notice questions on the situation on the Basque coast were answered in the House of Commons by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Anthony Eden. He read a telegram from the British Consul at Bilbao as follows:— “The President of the Basque Government urgently requests that you should be informed that the food situation is critical, that the harbour entrance is clear of mines, that the shore batteries can effectively protect merchant shipping in territorial waters, and that the blockade is not effective. Since April 1 27 vessels have entered and 32 have cleared Bilbao.” It would be clear, Mr. Eden said, that the Consul was passing on a message from the Basque Government and not expressing his own views, as the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. C. R. Attlee, had appeared to suggest in his question. - Mr. David Lloyd George (Independent Liberal —Caernarvon) intervened, wanting to know if the Government had taken steps to ascertain whether or not the Basque Government’s statement was correct. Mr. Eden replied that naturally the Government would do all it could to secure full information, and in answer to another member he explained that no one had ever said that no ship could get in or out of Bilbao. Exploit of “Potato” Jones. The other private notice question referred to the reported departure of the British merchant ship Mary Llewellyn from St.-Jean-de-Luz and inquired about protection for British ships which disregarded the Government’s advice not to proceed to Basque ports. Mr. Eden recalled the explicit statements he had made in the debate on Wednesday that while the Government hoped ships would not disobey the instructions, if they did and were on the high seas they would be entitled to protection. Under the non-intervention control scheme it has been arranged that all patrolling vessels shall fly the special pennant of the North-east Fisheries Convention and that merchant vessels having observers on board shall fly a plain -white flag with two black circles which has been specially designed for the purpose. An official statement issued by the International Board to-night on the coming into operation of the control scheme at midnight on Monday exempts from the obligation to embark observation officers vessels with wireless equipment which have already passed an appropriate observation port and vessels without wireless equipment which have already passed their last port of call. ACTION BY SOVIET (Received April 18, 7.30 p.m. Moscow, April 17. The Government has ordered ships going to Spain to comply with the nonintervention regulations.