REBELS IN SPAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 80, 5 April 1938, Page 11

REBELS IN SPAIN

FRANCO'S NEW DRIVE

WORK OF FOREIGN PLANES

ITALIAN TACTICS

The gravest possible view is taken | here of the Spanish situation, writes' the diplomatic cbrrespondent^of the, "Manchester Guardian." The impending defeat of loyalist Spain has been announced so often that there is some reluctance in regarding it as imminent now. But it must certainly be considered possible. Hitherto either side in the civil war could hold up the offensive of the other because there has all along been insufficient weight of metal to overcome the rifle and the machine-gun in a terrain so difficult as the Spanish. It was impossible to produce anything at all like the barrages of the Great War. But this has now been' achieved by the rebels. Their superiority in.light and heavy guns and in bombing and fighter planes is now so enormous that they can produce ihe equivalent of a creeping barrage of shells and bombs on fairly w^de sectors. A hail of metal descends on the advanced positions of the Loyalists,, and having smashed the defences and annihilated the defenders passes on to the second line. Against this fire the Loyalist infantry are helpless. ITALY'S INTERVENTION. A new form of "intervention" has made this possible. Italian aeroplanes arrive for each rebel thrust, take part in the operations, and then return to Italy. General Franco and his staff have only to state what they need and the needs are supplied. New German aeroplanes are also present in considerable numbers. \ They are'far superior "to the Junker and Heinkel planes that took part in the earlier operations. The Russian planes serving- with the 1; Loyalist forces are now wholly outclassed. Counter-attack in the air aqd reprisals are,almost imppssible, for even if Loyalist planes elude the rebel fighter planes they are kept so high by the rebel anti-aircraft artillery (which is mostly German) that they are quite unable to hit their targets. The Loyalists, on the other hand, are at the mercy of rebel air raids. The rebels are chiefly advancing along the Valley of the Ebro, which offers them the most favourable terrain. ,But the natural obstacles that still lie. between them and the, coast are-great, and it is possible that the offensive will be, held up in two or three days by the ravines and mountain ranges. The implications of this crisis— which 'may be the supreme crisis—in the Spanish civil.war are very grave in any case.' , FORMIDABLE INTERVENTION. . ' The question of the "volunteers" has now become meaningless. Italian and German intervention is now more formidable than it has been at any time and would remain almost unaffected by the withdrawal of "volunteers." The Anglo-Italian conversations are now being resumed. So far the results have been scanty. Italy demands that the British Government recognise Abyssinia directly and not through the League of Nations, phe professes to regard the presence of a large army in Libya* as a result of tension in the Mediterranean,' and makes the withdrawal of unspecified numbers of Italian troops from Libya contingent on a Mediterranean agreement, although she is still reinforcing her Libyan army and is constructing barracks and fortified positions which leave no doubt that she means to maintain a large and permanent Libyan army. ' As, for'the-Spanish problem, it is, according to the Italian thesis, being adequately dealt with by the Committee of Non-intervention. The precise relations between Italy and Germany are still obscure, but the point is rapidly being reached when both the British and the French Governments will be compelled .to adapt their own' policies to a European situation which has been transformed by the conquest of Austria, by the crisis in the Spanish civil war,- and by Cjermanilaliari relations which seem to have been made closer by the conquest of Austria, s . BOBBED OF MEANING. That conquest cannot be agreeable to Italy, but is,irremediable and removes the main.'.conflict between German and Italian vital interests. Without a Spanish settlement there can be no Anglo-Italian settlement that is not a sham. > Final judgment on the conversations, in Rome must be suspended, for they are still in their beginnings. But the crisis in the Spanish civil war would seem to be robbing them," ."of • whatever meaning they may have had. Time is now on the side of Italy and Germany. By,, gaining time Italy and Germany may hope to win the civil war. Their victory, coming as it would close on the prodigious German victory in Central Europe, would be of the greatest importance in promoting the plans for a German hegemony east of the Rhine and ah Italian hegemony in the Mediterranean'^ ; The balance of power, strongly tipped against the Western Powers by the German conquest of Austria, and the German-Hun-gariah Entente, which is certainly im-' 'pending whether the Hungarians fancy it or hot, will be made even more unfavourable by the direct menace to French and British vital interests in the Mediterranean, i and Eastern Atlantic. ■ .

Decisions that may determine the future of Europe and the status of this country and France as Great Powers have become a matter" of immediate urgency; it wijl be noted that Mr. Chamberlain, in his statement to the House of Commons on March 15, said that we'must consider the new situation "quickly."' It is coming to be realised that the transition from; a passive to an active foreign policy cannot be delayed much longer.