W.E.A.

Evening Star, Issue 22687, 29 June 1937, Page 15

W.E.A.

RAILWAY CLASS The meet iivg of the above (-lass was hoi'cl in the Locomotive Social Hall, when there,,yvas a good attendance of members, jf'be subject of the lecture, ‘ The Spanish War and British Policy,’ proved to bo of more than, ordinary interest and, as given by Mr Brailsford, opened up many important questions. ' Mr Brail ford said it lias seemed many times : during the last few weeks that” we were,, faced with .war, but always the bluff has failed. While dictators are very anxious to keep up the war fever, they are equally anxious to keep away from actual war. One hears so many opinions regarding .Britain’s non-intervention policy that it has amounted, in effect, to intervention on the side of General Franco, and that it has been contrary to international law. On the other side, that, if she Had insisted on treating Franco’s party as rebels and allowed British help to go to the People’s Front only, she. would have let loose a European war. If that is so, would such a war bo worth while, whether purely for honour’s sake, or for what it could achieve ? Would it be likely to benefit the Spanish people!* Might the terrible ills be accepted as the necessary cost of saying Europe from Fascism, or would it be more likely to impose new tyrannies, after inflicting untold death aiid misery on the people ri6t only of Spain, not only of. Europe, but of the world. If either side wins by virtue of the help of foreigners, it will.be to that extent unpopular with patriotic Spaniards. Other considerations may weigh more heavily both now and in the future, but it is a fact that those foreigners who intervene on either side—and especially foreign Governments —tend to defeat their own purpose. General Franco has issued an appeal to all Spaniards to unite against the foreigner. He means, of course, the foreigner on the other side, and seems to forget the help that ho himself is receiving from Italian and German sources.

Spaniards and others can find reasons in abundance for fighting against either side. To discover what either is fight •ing for is not so easy. The general lino of division between the forces in conflict in Spain is between the privileges of the traditional rulers and the claims of the" masses to a larger share of wealth, opportunity, and 'power. On the one hand we have the grandees oi landed nobility, the army officers, and the church leaders, who have clung to power and privilege, allied as they have been till lately with the monarchy, non with the Fascist group. On the othei side we have the peasantry, impoverished, uneducated (45 per cent, illiterate at the 1931 census), mostly wretched beyond measure, and the town workers, somewhat better off, and pos sessing strong fighting organisation, but weakened by the pressure of the desti tute peasantry and by the opposition of tho privileged groups. Meantime Spain is a cockpit. Her people are suffering largely because the upholders of rival theories have come from many lands to fight their battles on her soil. Britain and France have done their best to prevent this—not so much out oi concern for the Spanish people, but rather to save Europe from ca tastrophe. They have succeeded in this so far, despite frequent dangerous crises, but they have not saved Spain, and theii policy of non-intervention has been attacked as, in effect, favouring one side in the civil war. It is contended that, while Britain and France have been loyal to the principle of leaving the Spaniards to fight their own quarrel, Germany and Italy, while professing to accept this principle, have, in fact, given great help to Franco’s rebels, and that Russia has been unable to give corresponding help to the other side.