NOT TO BE TOLERATED

Evening Star, Issue 22974, 3 June 1938, Page 9

NOT TO BE TOLERATED

ATTACKS ON BRITISH SHIPPING GOVERNMENT MOVING IN MAHER Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, June 1. The Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Mr R. A. Butler) received a number of members of Parliament and representatives of shipping companies at the Foreign Office, when the recent attacks on British ships in Spanish waters were discussed. The position of Britain since the beginning of the Spanish civil war has been that it would afford naval protection to British shipping on the high seas ? but could not give protection m territorial waters. The Government, nevertheless, has no intention of allowing British ships lawfully trading with Spanish ports to be the object of attacks from the air. The Government is believed, therefore, to be giving close and active consideration to measures which could be taken to bring home to those concerned in these attacks that their continuation cannot be tolerated, and that, if the protests are neglected, they do not exhaust the action which Britain might be compelled to take. GENERAL FRANCO PROMISES INVESTIGATION LONDON, June 2, (Received June 3, at 11 a.m.) General Franco, replying to the British protests against the bombing of the Plntharnes and the Thorpchall, declares that British shipping was not deliberately selected for attack, and promises an investigation. He’also expresses regret.