SPANISH WARFARE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 308, 26 November 1936, Page 10

SPANISH WARFARE

QUESTIONS IN COMMONS. BRITAIN NOT INTERFERING. (British Official Wireless.) Received November 26, 12.7 p.m. RUGBY, Nov. 25. Signor Grandi, in London, and Count Ciano, in Rome, have volunteered the most binding assurances that the Italian Government has neither the desire nor the intention to interfere in any way with the status quo of the Balearic Islands. Several questions regarding the situation in Spain were answered by Mr R. A. Eden in the House of Commons. He stated that the proposed ban on the conveyance of war material to Spain by British vessels would not apply to commodities such as foodstuffs and coal. Referring to the report of the arrest by Spanish rebel warships of the Norwegian vessel Lisken, Mr Eden said he understood the master of the ship had informed the naval authorities at Gibraltar that on November 15 he was stopped and interrograted by two Spanish armed trawlers about ten miles off Cape Finisterre, and ordered to proceed in company with one of them to Vigo. The master refused on the grounds that he was outside territorial waters. An armed guard was placed on board the Norwegian ship and she was taken to Vigo, where a cargo of seed potatoes consigned to the Agricultural Department of the Spanish Government was confiscated. Sir Samuel Hoare stated that reports received from the Glow Worm indicated that the Spanish Government warship Miguel De Cervantes was damaged at the entrance to Cartagena Harbour on November 22 and that the damage was consistent with a torpedo attack. Mr Noel Baker (Labour) referred to reports that the Spanish Government had obtained pieces of the torpedo which caused the damage. Ho asked if it was not of vital interest to the Powers, including Britain, that the facts of the caso should he established. Sir Samuel Hoare replied that it was of vital interest to the British Government that we should not interfere. “ I have no information to justify my expressing any opinion about the matter,” he said.