SUPERVISION MEASURES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 55, 6 March 1937, Page 10

SUPERVISION MEASURES

DETAILS DISCUSSED

INSPECTION RIGHTS

(British Official Wireless.)

(Received March 6, 2.10 p.m.)

RUGBY, March 5,

The chairman's sub-committee of the International Committee for Non-inter-vention in Spain met at the Foreign Office this afternoon and was still m session at a late hour this evening. The meeting of the plenary Committee fixed for this afternoon was postponed, and it is probable that it will not be held till Monday. . It is unlikely that the full scheme for supervision of the application of the Non-intervention Agreement will be known until after the plenary Committee meeting, but the general character of the plan is already known and the details are a subject of intelligent anticipation in the newspapers. It is expected that the administration of the supervision, will be entrusted by the International Committee to. another committee or board which will probably consist of a chairman, nominated by the International Committee itself, and representatives of the five principal Powers among the twenty-seven States participating in the Non-intervention Agreement. Observation on the Portuguese-Spanish frontier wjll be organised outside the general scheme, and the appointment of 130 British observers for this purpose has already been announced. The Franco-Spanish frontier will be watched by an international body of observers, also numbering 130, and five observers will exercise similar control along the short Gibraltar-Spanish frontier. SPECIAL OFFICERS ON SHIPS. The scheme for naval control will require, it is estimated, about 550 observing officers who will travel on ships of the participating Powers visiting Spain and supervise unloading to ensure that they do not carry arms, war material, or volunteers. As there are no relevant precedents for a control scheme of this kind, it will not be surprising if it proves necessary to inaugurate it by stages. The first stage must obviously be the ap? pointment of the higher directing officials and their personal staffs. The French and British authorities have agreed that observers along the FrancoSpanish and Gibraltar-Spanish frontiers shall enjoy immunities normally accorded to diplomatic officers, and they will have full facilities, including the right of free entry into dock and railway warehouses and depots, and the right of inspection and of examining documents relating to particular consignments and travellers' passports.