SPAIN AND TANGIER

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 December 1940, Page 8

SPAIN AND TANGIER

SEIZURE OF CONTROL.

[BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.]

RUGBY, December 13

It is confirmed in London that the Spanish authorities in Tangier today dissolved the International Administration, dismissing all officials and replacing the police by a Spanish security guard. A vigorous protest was at once made by the British Consul-General, and it is learned in London that a serious view is taken of the Spanish action. The British officials affected include a British Judge, the British Finance Minister, his treasurer, and a high police official, as well as other lesser officials. Other nations are affected, and it is presumed that there will be other protests as on a previous occasion of the infraction of the Tangier Statute by Spain.

The Convention instituting the International Zone of Tangiei' was signed by the British, French, and Spanish Governments at Paris in 1923, and came into force in 1925. The Convention, was modified by a Protocol in 1928, signed by the three Powers and Italy, who thereby adhered to the Convention. Both instruments have been adhered to by Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden. The Convention provides for a complete international administration of the zone, except as to native affairs, which are reserved to the authority of the Shereef of Morocco. In June of this year, a few days before the collapse of France, Spain sent an occupying force into the zone. The Spanish Foreign Office said that' this had been done to maintain the neutrality of the zone, that the international administration would be continued and that the occupation was “provisional.”