NURSES FOR SPAIN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 153, 31 May 1937, Page 2

NURSES FOR SPAIN

REASONS FOR QUESTIONING. INSTRUCTIONS FROM LONDON. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, May 30. ; What led to the interrogation -by the police of the three New Zealand nurses who desired passports to proceed to Spain for nursing service, was explained by the Minister of Internal Affairs (Hon. W. E. Parry) in an interview at the week-end. It was in consequence of a dispatch received from the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs that action was taken which was considered to be entirely in the interests of the nurses themselves.

“The three young ladies were granted in the ordinary way passports to travel to Spain,” said Mr Parry. “Then came a dispatch from the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs' about passport facilities to persons desirous of travelling to Spain or the Spanish zone of Morocco. It stated that, as the result of the recent extension of the international agreement regarding nonintervention in Spain to cover the dispatch of volunteers to Spain, it had been decided that passports should not be issued to British subjects for Spain or the Spanish zone of Morocco unless such persons fell within the following categories:—(a) Persons able to show that they have urgent business reasons for visiting Spain or Spanish Morocco and persons returning to Spain or Spanish Morocco to resume employment there, together with members of their families ; (b) journalists representing reputable papers; (c) persons travelling under the auspices of the following Humanitarian organisations: General Relief Fund for Distressed Women and Children in Spain, National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief, British Red Cross, International Red Cross, Save the Children Fund, Society of Friends, Spanish Medical Aid. “6n Monday, May 17,” Mr Parry said, “it was gleaned by the Department of Internal Affairs from tb» newspapers that three nurses were in Auckland and were leaving on the following Wednesday. As the time was short and as it was essential that they be notified before departure that the passports in their possession were not valid for Spain, the department sent a communication to tiie superintendent ol police in Auckland requesting that they be interviewed and that they state to which, it any, of the approved organisations they were proceeding. It was requested that they .should be instructed to present their passports for appropriate endorsement at tne passport office m Auckland At the same time it was asked that the nurses be warned that they were travelling at their own risk and that His Majesty’s Government could not be lesponsible for their protection. Subsequently certificates were furnished to the effect that they were joining the Spanish Medical Aid. Their passports were thereupon endorsed as “Valid for a single journey to Spam under the auspices of, the Spanish Medical Aid Committee.”

POLICE ACTION,

PALMERSTON NORTH PROTEST

Held under the auspices of the Palmerston North Spanish Relief Committee, a meeting of about fifty citizens, last evening, passed a resolution protesting against the of the Auckland police in relation to the three New Zealand nurses on the eve of their departure for Spain. Mr S J. Bennett presided anil stated that £6O had been raised m the city towards’ the cost ot sending the nurses to Spain, and 4.600 had been contributed in New Zealand altogether. The nurses were going to assist in the relief, of suffering, and j although, those behind them had been called “Reds” they had been actuated by the best motives. Most people, he', was afraid, seemed to hife a lack ot I imagination. It a man were knocked j down in the street, hundreds would . run to his aid, but when there were , 400,000 killed and wounded in an- i other country file majority of citizens | were unmoved. •,,, t >The principal speaker '.“-as Dr. v\. . H. Smith, who said it was a remark-1, able fact that as soon as one took up . the cudgels' on behalf of the underprivileged he was labelled a Communist or A Bolshevik. “If you want to get oil in the material world,’ he i added, “the cause of the underprivileged must be left severely, alone.” . . With inference to the situation in | Spain, he said that Britain and France had been guilty of every con- . ceivable breach of the law of nations, and lie went on to detail Britain’s alleged Wrongs. He said that | behind the police action in Auckland was the British Fore'/i Office, and that was all there was to it. l'itain could go on pretending, but the fact remained that she preferred Hitler and Mussolini to any other Government which would give the people liberty and right. He appealed on I behalf of the nurses for further funds and suggested that a protest be entered against the action of the police in questioning the nurses as they did on the ev.e of their departure. The following resolution was carried unanimously:—“That this public meeting of Palmerston North citizens emphatically protests against - the excessive action of the police in intimidating and obstructing tbo nurses on the eve of their departure for Spain. We consider that an attempt has been made to prevent medical assistance going to Spain, and we therefore demand that, this matter be thoroughly inquired into and a full public statement be made on this incident and infringement of personal liberty.”