REPLY TO DUCHESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 100, 30 April 1938, Page 9

REPLY TO DUCHESS

INTERVENTION ISSUE

INCORRECT ALLEGATION

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, April 29,

The Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, in reply to the Duchess ■of Atholl's letter of resignation as a National. Whip, stated that all reports

sent to him and to the Foreign Office by the Duchess reporting the alleged arrival in Spain of Italian troops and' material had been found either to be entirely incorrect or so improbable as to have affirmed the virtual certainty that they were incorrect.

He could not accept the contention that Italy had not fulfilled the condition indicated. True, no withdrawal of Italian troops had yet taken place, but "it was never demanded or expected 'of Italy that it should effect a unilateral withdrawal."

•The policy of non-intervention, he said, was originally and had since been continuously applied by Britain in an entirely impartial manner, and he could not agree that it had benefited one side more than the other.

Dealing with the Duchess's complaint that non-intervention had prevented Spain from buying arms, Mr. Chamberlain pointed out that some Governments already recognised General Franco's administration, and added: —•

"If his Majesty's Government were to depart from the of nonintervention, their action would almost certainly be followed by an immediate increase in the amis supplied not to one side both to both sides. In that event a situation would arise which would be fraught, in my opinion; with the greatest danger to the peace of Europe. "I am satisfied that the interests of fair play have not suffered through the policy of non-intervention in Spain, and nothing you have said shakes my view that to depart from that policy would involve very grave dangers to European peace."

The reason given by the Duchess of Atholl for her. resignation was the failure, in her view, of Ihe Government to take adequate steps to secure the withdrawal of the Italian troops from Spain before the signature of the Italian Pact or to take action with other Powers to safeguard peace in Central Europe on the shores o£ the

North Sea—all matters which she feels vitally concern the safety of the country. The Duchess reaffirmed her Conservative principles.