The MANAWATU DAILY Times TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1936. _____ Spanish Possibilities

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 194, 18 August 1936, Page 6

The MANAWATU DAILY Times TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1936. _____ Spanish Possibilities

The external, not the internal, position of the Spanish civil war is the main cause of anxiety at the moment. The two great world forces, Fascism and Sovietism, are watching the issue with eager anxiety and the temptation to assist the side which is lighting for the particular form of government each represents must be almost irresistible. Only the fear of plunging the whole world into a hideous conflagration is holding the nations back. Even now, however, the Italian delay in giving assent to a non-intervention pact is causing extreme anxie y to British statesmen no less than to the leaders in h ranee. Mussolini lias been exasperatingly silent during the past lour I days, and the longer that fateful silence lasts the greater the ' France’s position is most difficult. She is to all intents anil purposes under a Socialist regime with a powerful Communist group having a great deal to say in the shaping ot her policy. Un her eastern and southern borders are the armed might of t e two great Fascist States. What she fears is that if the rebels triumph her western border will be manned by a thin, h asms armv. Then she will be ringed by hostile steel. . ‘it is quite obvious that if the rebels receive no outside assistance they cannot conquer the Government forces, but thev have been receiving very substantial help in the form of the"most modern and most destructive lighting ’planes, lhcy have the great advantage of bases so placed as to be easily supplied with munitions from any part of Europe, whereas the Government forces should they lose such seaports as ban Sebastian will find difficulty in obtaining outside help. Already there have been suspicions of the acts of several of the Towers in closest contact with the conflict. It was inconsiderate of a German admiral, at an early stage of the rebellion, to pay a visit (if that report was correctly founded), to General Franco and- disnlay his sympathy with the insurgents, bucli action was bound "to invite a sinister interpretation. It was entirely natural, however, that the German Government should send gunboats to Spain to remove its nationals, just as British cruisers have been removing those of Britain,. and all the other rumours of unneuti’al German actions are denied by Berlin. In the same way Italy explains that if Italian ’planes have been interfering in Morocco, it must have been without any official authority. . , ... . It was inevitable that trouble in Morocco should be viewed as a temptation to Germany to fish in troubled waters, because in Morocco Germany had had ambitions before. The name of Algeciras, the small watering place near Gibraltar, which has been in the thick of recent troubles, could not fail to recall events which filled all Europe with the fear of war before the storm broke in 1914. In 1904 Great Britain and Spain had agreed to allow France a free hand in Morocco. This Germany refused to recognise, contending that it was contrary to an older convention. In March, 1905, the Kaiser visited Tangier, and the result of Germany’s interference, then and later, was that the Sultan of Morocco refused to agree to the reforms urged on him by France. He suggested a conference, which, after the resignation of M. Delcassc, France’s Foreign Minister, and one of the authors of the Entente Cordiale, had been enforced by Germany, met at Algeciras in January, 1906. Most of the European Towers and the United States were represented, Spain acting as host and president. Only Austria supported Germany, and a convention, which admitted, the privileged position of France, was signed. The reforms indicated w r ere accepted by the Sultan, and the trading rights of the various nations were regulated. Germany had blustered and had to climb down.

A new crisis was provoked when, in 1910, as -a counterpoise to the influence of France in Morocco, some German capitalists bought from the Sultan concessions over a large part of the country. In July, 1911, the German Government sent the gunboat Panther to Agadir, and her officers promised the Moroccan kajds the support of Germany in resisting the control of France. This nearly brought about a European war, but the two Powers came to an arrangement by which France was'given a free hand in Morocco in return for the cession of about 100,000 square miles of land in the Congo basin. No doubt Germany still has dreams of establishing herself on the North African coast while Italy can see opportunities of further tightening her grip on the Mediterranean if she can help a fascist regime into the seat .of power in Spain*