LEAGUE COUNCIL

Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1937, Page 5

LEAGUE COUNCIL

AT GENEVA SPAIN'S DRAMATIC APPEAL. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph—Copyright;. GENEVA, September 18. Delegates packed the hall of the League Assembly to hear Senor Negri n. of Spain, who made a dramatic speech. He said lie warned the Assembly that Italy and Germany had no intention of leaving Spain when the war was over. He made a vigorous attack on the Non-Intervention policy. He demanded the right to buy arms and munitions for Republican Spain. Senor Nogrin also urged that the League should recognise there was Italian and German aggression and to extend the Nyon Patrol Agreement to include Spanish ships, also to demand the withdrawal of toreign volunteers from Spain. He added: “With our words carefully weighed, we solemnly deelare that Italy is preparing to send to Spain an army twice as large as it has there now.” Senor Negrin asked the Assembly to refer tlie Spanish situation to 11 political commission.

The French Foreign Minister, M. Del bos, in a quiet speech, admitted the Non-Intervention Committee had not given results he hoped for. He strongly appealed to all nations to collaborate in defence of peace and urged that international treaties be respected.

Senor Negrin declared the Republicans in Spain could finish the war in three months if the foreign volunteers were withdrawn. He added: “Th(> original rebel army ceased to interest us more than six months ago. Civil war lias become war of invasion. Only the incorrigibly innocent believe Italians or Germans could be seduced from Spain by the offer of compensations elsewhere, as Spain offers them unique opportunities for carrying out European designs, notably the Balearis, Ceuta, and the Pyrennean frontier.”

The Norwegian. Doctor Kolit, suggested that he thought it was difficult. Could not the League invite the parties to accept an armistice, pending a referendum on the lines of Mr Jordan’s statement on September 16. , PAR IS. September 17.

Senor Lugo Caballero, the former Prime Minister of Spain, stated today: “If the League refuses action in favour of Republican Spain, we shall ask the international unions to introduce direct action in their respective countries to force the democracies to fight Fascism.”