Bombing British Vessels

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 151, 29 June 1938, Page 5

Bombing British Vessels

Franco Denies Deliberate Intention FOREIGNERS UNDER BRITISH FLAG United Press Association.—Bv Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. Received Tuesday, 7.20 p.m. LONDON, June 28. General Franco denied that bis airmen were deliberately seeking out British vessels for attack. The height from which bombing was usually effected varied from 9000 to 12,000 feet. Therefore it was impossible to distinguish between ships in the danger zone. Many British ships recently sunk were hot really British but the property of companies registered in Britain since the war with tho sole obect of benefiting from the protection of the British flag. These facts were well known to the British Government. Goneral Franco, in an interview by the .Saragossa correspondent of The Times, says: “There is only one solution of the problems created by the bombing of Republican ports by Nationalist aircraft, namely, the setting apart of a single harbour far from the seat of war and devoted solely to commercial traffic of a non-military nature. Such a port would be stripped of military objectives and would naturally have to be controlled by neutral countries.’’

General Franco described tho offer thus made as an important, sacrifice of its legitimate rights by tho Burgos Government and being unprecedented in history.