NON-INTERVENTION

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 132, 1 December 1938, Page 8

NON-INTERVENTION

Belgium, according to the official announcement of the Foreign Minister (M. Spaak), published in the cable news yesterday, is discontinuing her participation in the Nonintervention Committee, which has represented ihe attitude of most of the European Powers towards the conflict in Spain for over two years. Sweden, according to the Australian Associated Press, has also advised her intention of withdrawing her representative from the Chairman's Subcommittee of the Non-Interven-tion Committee t It is also stated that similar action by other small Powers is possible. Whether Sweden will follow the example of Belgium and negotiate with General Franco with a view to representation at Burgos, the Nationalist headquarters, is not mentioned, but it is quite easy to understand the further reference in the cables to the fact that "official 'circles do not conceal their concern at the withdrawals from which disturbing conclusions may be drawn." One conclusion suggested is "the possibility has arisen of the Committee quietly disappearing." This may come as corollary of the view, in the light of recent events in Europe, that the Non-intervention Committee has

outlived any usefulness it might once have possessed. Just as the outcome of the Czechoslovakia!) crisis might be regarded as a severe blow to the prestige of the League of Nations and raise questions among some of its members as to the value of further membership, so the usefulness of the Non-interven-tion Committee may be similarly queried.

Yet the Committee at the outset and for the greater part of its existence did serve at least one useful purpose in preventing the spread of the Spanish civil war to the rest of Europe. This was the main purpose for which it was created, and while it did not prevent Italy and Germany from rendering substantial aid in men and munitions to the insurgent forces under Franco, it did prevent actual war from spreading over the frontiers. On the other hand, it has acted detrimentally to the Government or Republican side in Spain because it was unable to secure munitions in comparable quantities from abroad owing to the loyal adherence of other signatories, particularly Britain and France, to the Non-intervention Agreement It is also to be noted that in September of last year, when a form of submarine piracy developed in the Mediterranean, it was not the Nonintervention Committee, to which Italy and Germany wished to refer vhe matter, but a special conference a! Nyon that put an end to the pest The Committee also formulated a scheme by which all foreign aid to both sides in Spain should be gradually withdrawn, but this was never implemented, though it might have Brought about such a "settlement" in Spain as the British Prime Minister insisted must be a preliminary to the ratification of the AngloItalian Pact. Since then it has been reported that further aid has been given to General Franco. Britain and France- in the meantime, after the recent consultation in Paris, decline to accord belligerent rights to the Nationalist Government in spite of its demands and adhere to their original policy of non-inter-vention which, at any rate, has exercised a steadying influence on the Spanish situation.