A SHARP CRISIS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 154, 1 June 1937, Page 6

A SHARP CRISIS.

The task- of the Non-Interven-tion Committee in Spain proceeds from one crisis to another. Last week a British steamer was reported in a Bilbao message to have been hit by a bomb and sunk in shallow water, while another steamer was struck but narrowly escaped. Presumably these were missiles from insurgent aircraft. The same day the Committee was informed by the Italian Ambassador in London of the attack made by Spanish Government aeroplanes on an Italian warship in Palma harbour —Palma is the capital of Majorca in the Balearic Islands. The ship in question, the Barletta, is engaged in the task of preventing the importation of war materials into Spain, and no less than six officers were killed. Hardly was the ink dry on the Committee’s resolution deploring these incidents, and others in which bombs were dropped in proximity to other naval vessels, and noting the Spanish Government’s assurance that Palma would be a safety anchorage for control ships, when Loyalist planes flying over the Balearic Islands bombed the German warship Deutschland at anchor in Ibiza harbour, with most disastrous consequences to the personnel. The official reports of the incident are at variance. The Valencia authorities claim that the Deutschland precipitated the attack by opening fire on the aeroplanes which then dropped their missiles. Moreover, they assert that the warship was contravening the non-intervention agreement by being anchored “imprudently or without justification in a zone or port which is a notorious centre of rebel activity.” The German Government denies that the Deutschland fired at the aeroplanes, and “has

been compelled to take measures wliicli will be communicated to the Committee.” The world has had only a few hours to wait before learning the implication of these measures. They are the severe bombardment of the Spanish port of Almeria, 120 miles to the east of Malaga, on the southern coast and the killing of innocent people. Five warsliips were engaged in this deliberate act of aggression, the effect of which has been to gravely aggravate the crisis. It is a deliberate act of war on Germany's part, and the consequences, unless calm judgment prevails, may be most disastrous. Russia is helping the Spanish Government,-and Germany blames her for the growth of Bolshevism in Spain. But Hitler regards himself as the world’s saviour against Bolshevism. Should Russia therefore throw her might into the conflict on behalf of the' Spanish Government another conflagration would result. There are elements in the latest situation that are most disquieting, and Germany has acted in a most reprehensible manner in not leaving the matter to the Governments contributing to the Non-Inter-vention Pact to apportion the blame and seek redress.