REPORT OF U.S. APPROACH TO SPAIN IS DENIED

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 October 1948, Page 5

REPORT OF U.S. APPROACH TO SPAIN IS DENIED

LONDON, October 8.

A British Foreign Office spokesman announced today that he had been authorised to deny reports that "the United States Secretary of State (General Marshall) had approached the British Government and France suggesting the rescinding of the United Nations resolution under which the heads of foreign diplomatic missions were withdrawn from Spain.

The diplomatic correspondent of the News Chronicle says that the Foreign Secretary (Mr Ernest Bevin) and the French Foreign Minister (Mr Robert Schuman) have rejected a suggestion that'Franco Spain should be an associate member of the Western Union for the purposes of Western Union defence. The correspondent adds that feeling against Spain is strong in France, Italy, and Norway, and it is felt that Spain’s inclusion in the military agreement would cause political divisions which would outweigh any advantages. The Manchester Guardian, in a leading article, says that any sort of military arrangement with General Franco would have disastrous effects in Europe and would give actuality to the Russian propaganda statements that the Western resistance. to Communism is a revival of Fascism.